A Rose for Emily: Plot Summary 8

A writer's choice of words can be the fall or the rise of the author's work. Using diction, writers are able to make words come alive and illustrate a particular scene that the author wants to portray. If diction is not used, the idea trying to be portrayed can become blasé. Readers are more captivated to read works if the story is more descriptive and influential. For example, compare the two following sentences: the old brown tree is dying, and the aged russet tree slowly decays into the earth. Of the two sentences, the second sentences uses diction that is able to let the reader's imagination run wild. William Faulkner is unique writer who is able to manipulate a mere sentence into an image that captivates the reader's minds. In "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner uses diction to enhance his mysterious happenings of Emily Grierson's life from the way the townspeople behave all the way to Emily's unrequited love for Homer Barron.

In "A Rose for Emily", the underlying theme was that nothing is as it appears. The neighborhood that Miss Emily lived in was solely concerned about what other people thought of their community although they claim that it is all for the well being of Miss Emily. Faulkner uses diction that strongly portrays the citizens as nosy and outlandish people, "‘Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.' But there were still others, older people… could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige… ‘Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.'" In our modern language noblesse oblige is not a word that we have even heard of much less use in everyday diction. Having such a phrase brings about a sense of traditional language since noblesse oblige was a phrase often used in a society with aristocrats where there was a gap between the high class and low class. The community only gossiped about Miss Emily, but they have yet to discover who she really is. They gossip as if they know her and are concerned about her well