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A Rose For Emily Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Well-known author, William Faulkner, in A Rose For Emily, recounts the life of a woman named Emily. Faulkner uses various rhetorical strategies to convey his dark and dreary theme regarding Emily. These strategies include tone, characterization, and foreshadowing. Faulkner’s effective use of these strategies dramatically intensify the reader’s understanding of his theme regarding Emily’s isolation and resistance to change. Faulkner uses characterization to exhibit Emily’s isolation and resistance to change. It is apparent throughout the story she develops an attachment to those around her. For example, Faulkner shows the readers how she could not accept the reality of her father’s death. This is supported through this statement in the passage …show more content…

This quote highlights Emily’s isolation from society, restricting herself to inside of her home. Later on in the story, Emily goes to a pharmacy attempting to purchase poison, in which her reasoning is unidentified. She had just been engaged to a man named Homer. We can see in the story how she requests the strongest poison they have, “I want the best you have. I don't care what kind.”(Faulkner, Section 3). Also, acknowledging that we have prior knowledge of her past lover leaving her, she now has motive for wanting to kill Homer. Building on to this, the passage also tells us that shortly after the purchase of the poison, Homer suddenly disappeared. “And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron.”(Faulkner, Section 4). This occurrence of events, foreshadows the murder of Homer, by Emily. Through the effective use of numerous rhetorical strategies including tone, characterization, and foreshadowing Faulkner successfully conveys the tone of Emily’s isolation and resistance to change. These strategies helped in further strengthening the theme and making it more clear to the

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