Summary And Similarities Between 'A Rose For Emily And Outage'
Victoria Madeline Byrd
English 310
Stacia Gray
March 10th 2014
Moving Forces; Human Puppets Humans are malleable. We are but reflections of our experiences and surroundings. We are all but powerless in the grand scheme of things. In two pieces: William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily and John Updike’s Outage, you see this idea in full affect. Though in principle they are seemingly two very different stories, upon further inspection you see that both have a strikingly similar underlying theme. The will of humans is so easily swayed by outside forces, and these outside forces are what drives us, without us truly even knowing it’s there and in control of our every action. In Updike’s Outage, you very quickly see that the technology is what …show more content…
It’s as though the time in and around the house would stand still if it weren’t for the townspeople making it move with their judgments and actions. Emily Grierson and her solitary, isolated life was the talk of the town. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”(84). Even from the beginning she’s not made out to be a human with free will but a plaything of the towns people, who were the driving force in the piece. The story is written in the perspective of the town looking down on her from above, and toying with her and her life; very similar to a god-like figure. The people in the town, throughout her life and after her father passed away “felt sorry for her”(86). They were so involved in the judgment of her personal life. “When she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances…”(86). And then along comes a suitor that inevitably breaks her heart. The town dictates what happens to this woman. They control her life and the effect it has is devastating. They say “poor Emily”(87), the town thought she “carried her head high enough-even when we believed she was fallen”(87). Society here is providing a foreshadowing that they brought upon her. When she went to go get poison, they didn’t stop her, they said “she will kill herself”(88), and “it would be the best thing”(88). The town and society condemn her. They are what drive her to do what she did. And at the end, it’s her funeral and they find that in her upstairs bedroom the man she married, “lay in the bed”(90). Dead by poison. The town and the society around her drove her to madness with their constant judgment and condemnation, they controlled her. She was the odd
English 310
Stacia Gray
March 10th 2014
Moving Forces; Human Puppets Humans are malleable. We are but reflections of our experiences and surroundings. We are all but powerless in the grand scheme of things. In two pieces: William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily and John Updike’s Outage, you see this idea in full affect. Though in principle they are seemingly two very different stories, upon further inspection you see that both have a strikingly similar underlying theme. The will of humans is so easily swayed by outside forces, and these outside forces are what drives us, without us truly even knowing it’s there and in control of our every action. In Updike’s Outage, you very quickly see that the technology is what …show more content…
It’s as though the time in and around the house would stand still if it weren’t for the townspeople making it move with their judgments and actions. Emily Grierson and her solitary, isolated life was the talk of the town. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”(84). Even from the beginning she’s not made out to be a human with free will but a plaything of the towns people, who were the driving force in the piece. The story is written in the perspective of the town looking down on her from above, and toying with her and her life; very similar to a god-like figure. The people in the town, throughout her life and after her father passed away “felt sorry for her”(86). They were so involved in the judgment of her personal life. “When she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated; even with insanity in the family she wouldn’t have turned down all of her chances…”(86). And then along comes a suitor that inevitably breaks her heart. The town dictates what happens to this woman. They control her life and the effect it has is devastating. They say “poor Emily”(87), the town thought she “carried her head high enough-even when we believed she was fallen”(87). Society here is providing a foreshadowing that they brought upon her. When she went to go get poison, they didn’t stop her, they said “she will kill herself”(88), and “it would be the best thing”(88). The town and society condemn her. They are what drive her to do what she did. And at the end, it’s her funeral and they find that in her upstairs bedroom the man she married, “lay in the bed”(90). Dead by poison. The town and the society around her drove her to madness with their constant judgment and condemnation, they controlled her. She was the odd