Thornton Wilder develops the theme that small details in life should be cherished throughout Our Town through the view of dead people. Firstly, Mrs. Gibbs is advising Emily on what day of her life to revisit and suggests Emily to, “Choose the least important day in your life. It will be important enough,” (100). It can be inferred that Mrs. Gibbs means that a day with nothing “important” can still be appreciated and enjoyed because of all the small details in that day. Here, Wilder is emphasizing that those small details are important and for that reason should be cherished. Also, during her last look at Earth after revisiting her twelfth birthday, Emily dejectedly says, “Good-by, Good-by, world. Good-by, Grover's Corners... Mama and Papa.
Capote illustrates such potential for the family, particularly that of the children who are both talented and exceptional in their own ways. This familiarity that Capote establishes allows for a sense of devastation and compassion to be felt by the reader in the wake of the murders. Compassion is naturally extended to those whom are close to the Clutters, Bobby Rupp and Susan Kidwell are poignant examples of this. For these young adults, and children of the school and community, the loss of Nancy and her family would be the first true tragic event that they have experienced in their lives. This experience of tragedy evokes sympathy naturally from the reader towards those close to the Clutter’s.
Truman Capote begins the passage by describing Holcomb, Kansas as a far away town with not much to offer and begins to speak about the bland vibes that the province gives to show what it was like before the Clutter murders impacted the area. Indeed, it is quite accurate that Capote doesn’t think much of the insignificant town as he first begins to describe it. The author recalls Holcomb by saying that there is not much to see.
This quote from Our Town depicts how much insight the town’s people get when they die. Mrs. Gibbs does die at the end of the play, but her spirit lives on with her two children remaining at her
She simply took everything for granted and when given the chance to go back and unimportant day in her life, her twelfth birthday, she finally realized how much never appreciated everything. After her death, Emily had the choice to go back to one day in her life. After Mrs. Webb and everyone else that had died convinced her to back to an unimportant day, she then had realized she took everything for granted and before she went back to the present time, she exclaimed “ Good-by, Good-by world. Good-by, Grover’s Corners… Mama and Papa. Good-by to clocks ticking, and Mama’s sunflowers.
Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.
Telling the story in an irregular order, Faulkner develops a sense of suspense by adding details to the mysterious Miss Emily. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care: a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (451). The reader learns that Miss Emily had been seen as an eccentric woman that the people of the town had to take care of and overlook, ultimately overlooking her as a suspect in Homer Barron’s disappearance. Miss Emily often disappears into her house for months and years at a time,
In his short story, “A Rose for Emily,” William Faulkner intends to convey a message to his audience about the unwillingness in human nature to accept change and more specifically the secretive tendencies of aristocrats in the South during the early 20th century. In order to do this, Faulkner sets up a story in which he isolates and old aristocratic woman, Miss Emily, from her fellow townspeople and proceeds to juxtapose her lifestyle with theirs. In doing this he demonstrates her stubborn refusal to change along with the town, but also Among several literary devices the author employs to achieve this contrast, Faulkner sets up his narrator as a seemingly reliable, impartial and knowledgeable member of the community in which Miss Emily lives by using a first person plural, partially omniscient point of view. The narrator is present for all of the scenes that take place in the story, but does not play any role in the events, and speaks for the town as a whole. Faulkner immediately sets up his narrator as a member of the community in the first line of the story, saying that when Miss Emily died “our whole town went to her funeral.”
-“So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily 's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork,” (Faulkner II). -“When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad,” (Faulkner II). -“The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid,” (Faulkner
In describing the land as extensively beautiful and “out there”, Truman Capote is setting an environment of an isolated small town, where not much ever happens. This sets a contradictory theme for the rest of the book, as a small community of neighbors and friends turn on each other after a series of murders take place. In describing the town of Holcomb, Kansas, Capote uses strong imagery to set the tone for the small town as “calm before the storm.” Furthermore, Capote compares the unique grain fields to that of ancient Greek temples, indicating that the story contained in this novel has a larger significance as an inside look of timeless human themes such as murder and hatred and how these have existed for all of humanity.
Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.
In William Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, Emily Grierson, a prominent member of her small town, dies alone in her home. Upon her death, curious townsfolk entered her home trying to learn her secrets. It was thought she was crazy. Emily Grierson was not crazy; she was isolated by her father, which led to her odd social tendencies and unique interactions with others. A Rose for Emily is a short story based in a small town.
Even the narrator’s often disjointed accounts of the past all push towards a fond remembrance and need without a want in today’s society. “an eyesore among eyesores” Miss Emily’s house was called, that was to show that even with its cobwebs and peeling paint this building stood as a testament to an age long gone, a
As the story goes on, Faulkner describes Emily’s death: “When Miss Emily Grierson died the whole town went to her funeral: the men out of respectful affection for a fallen monument and the women mostly out of curiosity” (Faulkner). Faulkner emphasizes that while men are caring and respectful women act only based on curiosity. Indeed, the role of women in the southern society is less significant than the role of
Section I functions as a recollection of memory, as the narrator recalls the funeral of Emily, describing her death as a “fallen monument”, and her life as “a tradition, a duty, and a care”, setting up the plot for later conflicts and events that exemplify her life and death as such. The section also introduces symbols of southern tradition such as “when Colonel Sartoris…remitted her taxes” to introduce Emily’s strong upholding of tradition and her connections to the few characters that have severely influenced her life and values. Section II builds upon the ideas mentioned in Section I, but takes place 30
To compare, Faulkner shares a slice of evidence as to why Emily has an uncontrollable obsession for the dead, “After her father 's death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.” (Faulkner) Given these points, her father becomes arrogant and isolates her from society, or anyone who is willing to take Miss Emily from him. When her father, the only man in the world who has loved her,