FEIZHEN MAE B.

RODELAS BSACC 1-Y2-1 CRWT111

A Descriptive Writing Essay about “A Rose for Emily”

by William Faulkner

William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily,” is very entrancing and odd. My first
reaction after reading the entire short story was just complete shock that anyone can be
capable of something so disturbing to put it simply. When reading through the story, it is
written in a very frustrating way. The reader has to be actively reading the story or you will miss
something crucial which I did the first time reading through it. I was lost until I got to the end
and understood the way the author structured the story.

I was challenged as a reader at times because the story was written out of order on
purpose. Being written the way it was, the story gets a more interesting edge and pulls the
reader in. It intrigued me a lot. After reading it a second time the reader can see that certain
events are foreshadowed throughout the entire story. What is clear in this story is that if one
shelters a child all their life, they will never develop emotionally or socially as a result, and
people with this background can be prone to unpredictable behavior without the proper
guidance.

Emily is sheltered a lot as a child by her father. She wasn’t allowed to do much of
anything. She was always expected to behave honorably being of high status in the community.

Thus, the character of Emily Grierson can be well discussed as a victim of social
circumstances, which triggered the process of her becoming even more psychotic and which
brought about Emily’s ultimate death. Therefore, even though Emily did commit a murder, the
story of her life suggests that she cannot be held responsible for what she had done. Instead,
the blame must be placed upon a moralistically cruel society, in which Emily had the misfortune
to be born to this world.