Initial Personal Reaction: A Rose for Emily made me
feel very deep compassion and pity for Emily. She was stuck in the past and was
in love with a gay man. Emily loved and wanted to be with Homer even though it
was heard around town that he only liked men and was not a marring man. This
story made me think about days of being a young high school student trying to
get attention from a guy I had the biggest crush on, but he just wanted to be
nothing more than just my friend.
Literary Element/Thematic Analysis: The story is set
in a southern town around a time that being African American and gay would get
you killed! I believe that Faulkner illustrates how the town feels about Emily,
which is fragile hopeless lady. However, they fail to realize how she lives in
the past and would kill for love! Emily purchased Arsenic and the town assumed
she would kill herself, but in fact she was using it for Homer so she could
have him forever. Homer was most likely just using Emily so people in town wouldn't catch on that he was actually gay. In my point of view I think the “Rose” represents love,
passion, and vulnerability and Emily was conflicted with all three.
Questions/Comments: Do you think Emily killed Homer
because he was gay and wouldn’t marry her?
Demond Richardson
ReplyDeleteI believe it had more to do with him rejecting the marriage than it did with him being gay. With the severe bizarreness of Emily it seemed to me that she simply would not care about him being sexually attracted to men or even her. More than anything she wanted someone in the house with her to bounce her nutty ideas of storing dead bodies with. Homer probably saw the arraignment with Emily as something that he could use to boost himself up the social ladder. I believe what happen was Homer finally realized that Emily’s family had lost its status on the social ladder and tried to leave. That’s when Emily got his ass…
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DeleteI agree with Demond, because Emily only cared that Homer didn't love her, not just because he was gay. Had he loved another woman, she probably would have killed him just the same. And maybe she didn't kill Homer simply because he rejected her, but because she couldn't let him go. She just wanted him to stay with her, dead or alive.
ReplyDeleteI think Emily killed Homer because he was the only other man in her life besides her father, who she had a connection with. Since her father had passed and she was unable to keep his corpse she poisoned Homer instead to fill that void. What a sick woman!
ReplyDeleteI think Emily killed Homer simply because she is crazy. She didn’t want him to leave her and she wanted him to stay with her forever. That is why in the end of the story they found a piece of her hair beside is decomposed body in the upstairs room, in bed. To conclude, I just think she’s crazy.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading it again, I feel that Emily poisoned Homer not because Homer did or said anything. I might be mixing up the nonlinear story, but I am pretty sure she bought the arsenic before plans for a wedding were starting to materialize. It was always her intention to poison him, that way she could be sure that he would stay with her forever. She so zany, aint it adorable.
ReplyDeleteLike what most everyone else said, I think Emily did kill Homer, not because he was gay, but because she didn't want him to leave. Whether or not he was alive, she wanted him to stay with her forever. She needed someone to fill the void left from her father being gone. I think the horrible stench in her house may have messed with her head a little. I mean, who in their right mind would lay next to a decaying corpse. Nasty!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteTo answer your question, I don’t believe that Homer was killed due to his presumed sexual preference. I think he got killed because she was searching for love and did not get it so the only way she knew how was to kill him. It is funny that the author named a gay character Homer though.
I do not think Emily killed Homer because he was gay, I think he wasn't ready to settle down and have a family. He let Emily fall for her, and when he rejected what she wanted, she killed him. She didn't want to be left again. She seemed to kill for love.
ReplyDeleteIt appears that we are all in agreement. Though Homer was gay, the reality of the situation was that Emily (a woman whose only dream was to have someone there with her forever) killed Homer simply so that he would remain with Emily forever. Finding her hair next to the corpse on her bed in an embracing position clearly shows that she was not upset with Homer, but may have literally loved him too much (in her distored mental state). She just couldn't let him go.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Emily killed homer because she did not want to be rejected not because he was gay. but in turn this could be the reason he did not encourage a long term relationship with Emily. She had finally found someone, after her father had passed that she cared about and it is likely he was going to leave. Loosing a significant other in any regard can be traumatic, and you can see by how she handled her fathers death that she was not good at handling loss well and she definitely did not have good coping skills when she does loose someone close to her.
ReplyDelete