A-Rose-For-Emily英文读后感.doc

A Rose For Emily

The short story “A Rose For Emily” draws a vivid picture of the southern town Jefferson of the United States. Though the plot is not complicated, yet it can be regarded as a panorama of Faulkner’s works. It attracts readers’ attention successfully and makes us immersed in the whole story. And the ingenious usage of symbolism is a distinctive feature, which makes the story filled with profound implications. There are several different symbolic subjects in it, such as the house, Miss Emily, Barron Homer and so on. In this thesis, the author tries to discuss them one by one from his point of view.

Backgrounds Introduction

This story happens after the American Civil War, in Jefferson Town. It’s a story about an eccentric spinster named Emily Grierson whose marriage is totally manipulated by her father. Two years after her father’s death, poor Emily is acquainted with a northerner called Homer Barron, a day laborer and she falls in love with him. However, their relation is short-lived as Homer becomes tired of her and intends to get rid of her. In order to keep Homer at hand, Emily kills him with arsenic and “obtain” him, thus, she sleeps with his corpse for decades. This is the truth that villagers find after her death. From my own perspective, this masterpiece reflects the decline of the southern society and reveals the conflicts between the two different value systems and two societies after the American Civil War.

character & Symbolism

In this novel, Emily symbolizes the South, old and tradition, the Yankee represents the North, new and modern. Both young guys might be interested in each other when they first meet. But they possess altogether different values or concept of lives. So they inevitably separated before long. The conflict between the two partners symbolizes the conflict between the South and the North. And the absurd murder aggravates the contradictions.
The “Rose”, that is never mentioned in this novel, is always interpreted conventionally as a symbol of love. It might be used as the love Emily gets from her lover. But in my opinion the rose mainly represents decay and death. At the time the villagers went to her room and found the valance curtains of faded rose color and the rose-shaded lights in the room. Actually, the author plays a trick on Miss Emily. In fact, she doesn’t really get any love from any man whether it is from her lover or her father. Emily could have a favorable marriage but for her father’s interference. She could have got her deserved love from Homer. But on account of her obstinacy and pride, she receives tiredness and

indifference, instead of affection---rose, from him. Thus, as an outsider, the author or the villagers, they give a rose as a tribute to Emily. Besides, the rose also stands for the author’s and villagers’ pity, sympathy and lament for Emily, whose mind is imprisoned in the past and fails to adapt to the change. What’s more, the author, “William Faulkner objectifies his complicated and emotional involvement in the South and in the people who grow up and live there ever since”

Theme

The theme is developed through an exceptionally well-crafted story. Told from a third-person plural point of view, it reveals the reactions of the town to Miss Emily. As this “we” narrator shifts allegiance--now criticizing Miss Emily, now sympathizing with her--the reader sees the trap in which she is caught, and the extensive but unobtrusive foreshadowing prepares the reader for the story’s final revelation without detracting from its force.

My Feelings

When I finished reading the story, a sincere sympathy emerges in my mind. Emily is totally a tragedy of the old traditions. She is a prisoner of the past, of the social and moral taboos of the South. Not only because she is purely a woman, but also the stubborn conventions manacle her that result in her frustrated life. Even so，she could have a better life after her father’s death. However, she doesn’t get out of the tower her father built for her. On the contrary, she builds another one, and locks her soul. In our daily life, everything is changing everyday. As an individual, we can only adapt ourselves to the protean environment and should learn to accept new things. Only when we keep learning everyday can we survive in this world which is full of competition.

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