Comparing Odour Of Chrysanthemums And A Rose For Emily

Exposing Social, Economic and Historical Realities through Marxism
Karl Marx was a theorist of the Realism period, this time period brought a revealing of the truth and great change with a shift toward more democratic governments. Marx concerned himself with realistic issues that carried over in literature even though he was not a literary critic. Many writers during this time wrote realistically, writing stories that represented their own lives with minor changes or of their surroundings. Both, D.H. Lawrence, author of “Odour of Chrysanthemums” and William Faulkner, author of “A Rose for Emily”, are products of their time with accurately representing their social, economic and historical realities of alienation through their works. The
Often times even people within the same class did not socialize because their cold and lackluster surroundings reflected onto their social relationships. Elizabeth Bates from “Odour of the Chrysanthemums” did not socialize with the other miners wives and mothers and even her husband because she was a product of her surroundings, “the fields were dreary and forsaken, and in the marshy strip that led to the whimsy, a reedy pit-pond, the fowls had already abandoned their run among the alders…” (pg. 51). One would think that with surroundings like this socialization with others would make it more bearable but it has the opposite effect, making the only incentive to go outside either for Walter to provide for the family, go to the bar which would make Elizabeth resent Walter or for Elizabeth to meet John or Annie on their way home from school. Emily Grierson in “A Rose for Emily” represents the opposing spectrum; Emily is from an Old South aristocracy but is also socially alienated from her surroundings. The change the Realism period brings for Emily is a more modern outlook for society, Emily comes from an old fashioned way of doings