Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he laid out plainly what he thought good fiction should be. He also told the writers what they must do and remind themselves of, in order to create an acceptable piece of literature. In A Rose for Emily, Faulkner accomplishes his own standards to which a piece of fiction should meet in order to be good. William Faulkner writes about America’s past, the feelings of the past, and “truths of the heart” in his short story, A Rose for Emily. For a start, William Faulkner writes about America’s past in A Rose for Emily. In Faulkner’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he states that writers must not be afraid to write of the past “to help man endure.” A Rose for Emily takes place post-civil war in
After Emily’s father dies, the mayor, Colonel Sartoris, exempts Emily from having to pay taxes. As time went on, the new generation of the town did not like the idea of her not having to pay taxes. Many tax notices were sent, but the recluse, Emily, just sends them back. Finally, two men came to her door to escort her to a meeting of the Board of Aldermen. Emily still refused. Many times like this in the short story did Emily encounter clashes with the new generations. “These tactics that subtly urge readers to make connections between Miss Emily and a fading monument reinforce the idea that Emily represented the old way of life in her town. Emily is a relic from another era who refuses to accept changing times and who persists without change, like an old monument that is always present but immobile and steady in its spot” (Smith). The new generation is moving on from the old ways of the South and Emily refuses to. Emily refused to take note of the changes occurring around her and instead, she chose to confine herself in her home. The men of the town almost seemed afraid of Emily and they saw her as a monument of the old South. Before times began drastically changing, Emily tried to go out with a man and ride around in his car. “’The finer’ ladies seemed highly offended by Emily's actions. The ladies found Miss Emily's pre-marital
Emily’s family, the Griersons, "held themselves a little too high for what they really were" (A Rose for Emily). Emily's father forbade her to date because he believed that none of the men were good enough for her. “Emily's father has ruined her chances for a normal life and thereby grossly deformed her personality. But crazed as she is, after her father dies Emily attains a tiny area of genuine free choice—her chance to find and hold Homer Barron as lover and husband” (Strandberg). Emily met Homer when he came to town to pave the sidewalks. He was a northerner and their relationship was strongly frowned upon. She becomes so terribly desperate for human love that she goes with Homer on many dates, and some begin to think they will soon be married. However, it is clear that Homer is not interested in marriage and soon Emily purchases arsenic to presumably kill “rats.” As mentioned before, the south had to give up their whole way of life after the war. A life where Emily was raised in and when it was acceptable to own people. Emily still believed this notion and soon came to realize that alive, Homer was outside of Emily’s control and wasn’t going to marry her. If he was dead, however, she could own him. She could do whatever she wishes with him such as dress his corpse like a groom and sleep beside him perhaps every night. After Emily’s death, Homer’s corpse