Faulkner Essay -- essays research papers

Stunning Comparison in Faulkners A Rose for Emily and boron BurningIn the words of Oscar Wilde, "The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves." Conflict between the "well-bred" people and their "wise" counterparts satiates William Faulkners short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "Barn Burning." The inability of Emily Grierson in "A Rose for Emily" and Abner Snopes father in "Barn Burning" to accept and cope with their changing environments leads to an even greater quarrel with their neighbors in each of Faulkners stories, this inability escalates into a horrific murder. "A Rose for Emily" and "Barn Burning" are filled with gross contradictions that make passage of arms unavoidable. In "A Rose for Emily," different characters hold two opposing views of time itself. The first interpretation of time is that of a "world as present, a mechanical progression" (West 75). The nar rator, the new Board of Aldermen, Homer Barron, and the newest generation represent this interpretation. These individuals, holding a new, less restricted point of view, prefer to keep everything mint down in books, a practice strongly disapproved of by those who interpret their time as a "world of tradition, divided from us by the roughly recent decade of years" (West 75). Emily Grierson and her Negro servant, Colonel Sartoris, and the old Board of Aldermen represent this...