Summary of Donald Akers “a Rose for Emily”

Summary of Donald Akers “A Rose for Emily” In his article entitled “A Rose for Emily,” Donald Akers states that this short story will “remain a remarkable, provocative work regardless of the critical approach.” Akers described Emily as a weird character because of her refusal to pay taxes in the story and telling the tax collectors to discuss her taxes with a dead man. The man had been dead for ten years, and she was pretending he was alive. The author states that Emily’s being weird may appear throughout her whole family, and that being strange may have been passed on to her. Akers statement that Emily’s great-aunt, Old lady Wyatt, was crazy proves just that. Akers blamed Emily’s weirdness on her father. He stated that because her father would not let her date, she rebelled after he was dead by choosing a man out of her social class. She then would not let Homer leave, and did so by killing him. Akers said that, “the discovery of a strand of her hair on the pillow next to the rotting corpse suggest that she slept with the cadaver or, even worse, had sex with it.” The critic’s statement is what helps the reader comprehend that Emily is psychologically off. Akers later questions if Emily may be a tragic heroine in the story. He questions this because she is described as being an idol two times throughout the short story, and even though she poisons Homer, she is seen as, “a victim of her circumstance.” Those statements of Akers seem to match what Faulkner may think of Emily, based on his chosen title, “A Rose for