Misguided Society Essay
992 Words
4 Pages
In William Faulkner’s stories, A Rose for Emily, and Barn Burning characters from two different social status’ fight against society in a decaying south. The first victim is Emily Grierson from A Rose for Emily. The second is Abner Snopes from Barn Burning.
Emily Grierson’s background is a shady one. Her father is over protective and loving. It was said that he helped the town they lived in by bailing them out financially. “…the mayor…remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity…Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying” (90-91). Once Emily’s father passed, the new town mayor came asking for taxes owed. …show more content…
Emily Grierson’s background is a shady one. Her father is over protective and loving. It was said that he helped the town they lived in by bailing them out financially. “…the mayor…remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity…Miss Emily’s father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying” (90-91). Once Emily’s father passed, the new town mayor came asking for taxes owed. …show more content…
We find out at the end of the story after her death and subsequent funeral that she had been sleeping nightly with his rotting corpse in the same bed. “…Looking down at the profound and fleshless grin…Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head” (96). It seems that there are more issues to Emily than meets the eye.
Abner Snopes is that of a very different society than Emily. He is part of the sharecropping community and at the beginning of the story has been convicted by the townspeople of burning his landowner’s barn. The town asks the Snopes family to leave. “[Justice] This case is closed. I can’t find against you, Snopes, but I can give you advice. Leave this country and don’t come back to it” (419). They honor that and head to another town where Abner gets into another sharecropping situation. He goes into the home of Major de Spain, while he was not home, and drags his muddy feet across de Spain’s foreign fancy rug. “And now the boy saw the prints of the stiff foot on the doorjamb and saw them appear on the pale rug behind the machinelike deliberation of the foot which seemed to bear (or transmit) twice the weight which the body compassed” (422). As de Spain eventually notices and has his slave demand that Abner repair the rug. Abner hands the rug off to his daughters, and
Abner Snopes is that of a very different society than Emily. He is part of the sharecropping community and at the beginning of the story has been convicted by the townspeople of burning his landowner’s barn. The town asks the Snopes family to leave. “[Justice] This case is closed. I can’t find against you, Snopes, but I can give you advice. Leave this country and don’t come back to it” (419). They honor that and head to another town where Abner gets into another sharecropping situation. He goes into the home of Major de Spain, while he was not home, and drags his muddy feet across de Spain’s foreign fancy rug. “And now the boy saw the prints of the stiff foot on the doorjamb and saw them appear on the pale rug behind the machinelike deliberation of the foot which seemed to bear (or transmit) twice the weight which the body compassed” (422). As de Spain eventually notices and has his slave demand that Abner repair the rug. Abner hands the rug off to his daughters, and