Wednesday, September 10, 2014

What details foreshadow the conclusion in the story of "A Rose For Emily"?

Author William Faulkner foreshadows much of the events
that occur in "A Rose for Emily," particularly through the use of flashbacks. He begins
in the first paragraph when, in mentioning Emily's funeral, he shows the women of
Jefferson's "curiosity to see the inside of her house." The curiosity that Faulkner
introduces about "the smell" pervades throughout the story. The stench that surrounds
the property is much too strong to be a dead rat, but the townspeople (and the reader)
can not be expected to assume the true cause. Emily's refusal to allow her father's body
to be removed from the house for three days following his death foreshadows the presence
of Homer's own body in the bedroom. Another strong example of foreshadowing appears when
Emily purchases arsenic--strong enough to "kill anything up to an elephant"--to kill
rats (or, in this case, the rat, Homer, who spurns her wedding advances). The fact that
Homer is seen entering Emily's house but never leaving is another
example.

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