A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner

A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner Free Online Research Papers William Faulkner’s short story â€Å"A Rose for Emily† provides clues that the reader can choose to acknowledge or ignore, but nowhere in the story does Faulkner clearly explain why Emily Grierson murdered Homer Barron. Faulkner has discussed the story, and did reveal that it was about how inhumanity toward people can lead to murder. This suggests that the inhumanity that Emily suffered, both at the hands of her father and at those of society, which is rarely kind to women that never marry, may have led to psychological scars that eventually prompted her to murder Homer. Faulkner’s insight into the story is a generalized one, that does not explicitly provide a motive for the murder, only a sense of the pain that might have affected Emily profoundly enough to make her agreeable to the idea of murder. This paper will explore the reasons and motives that led Emily to murder Homer, illustrating the factors that played a part in her actions. One of the most compelling reasons that Emily murdered Homer is that she was from a time when men took care of women. This â€Å"care† included control, and sometimes even dictatorship, as in the case of her father, who sent all of Emily’s suitors packing. Women were taught to be dependent upon men, and Emily was dependent upon her father, but dependence breeds hostility because it becomes a type of bondage. Her father was particularly controlling, and none of his control belied any cognizance of Emily’s needs or what might make her happy. Thus, Emily was in a Catch-22 situation where she needed man but could not have them. Even the man she dated when she lived on her own left her. By murdering Homer, she turned the tables on that particular form of bondage and found a way to â€Å"keep† a man. Homer stayed with her- albeit dead; until she died. Another reason for the murder is that Emily was insane. When her father died, she refused to admit that he was dead for several days. Upon Homer’s death, she kept his body in the bed with his clothes nearby just as he had taken them off and probably slept next to him every night until her death. Menakhem Perry (64) states, â€Å"†¦here is, primarily, a woman who committed a pathological murder†¦perhaps even†¦necrophilia.† He also points out that Emily refused to recognize the death of Colonel Sartoris, contending that Emily’s â€Å"contact with reality [was] deficient† and that for her, â€Å"the borderline between reality and fantasy [was] blurred† (Perry 64). It is even possible that Emily was not consciously aware that Homer was dead, as she may have continued to see him as living; this could explain why she slept with him every night even though the flesh has long been gone from his bones, and he could not have looked like a l iving man. Another explanation for the murder is revenge, either against her father or against Homer. Out of the two men in her life, Emily’s father was the one that mistreated her the most. She felt that she needed her father, though, so she could not murder him. Murdering Homer was a way of stopping Homer from becoming to her what her father was and of taking revenge indirectly on her father. On the other hand, it is clear that Homer would have left her had he not been murdered, so Emily may have murdered him in anger that he too was deserting her. Robert Crosman (208) points out that Emily is actually in control in the story. When she goes to the pharmacist to get the arsenic, for example, the druggist tries to find out what she wants it for, but she does not answer yet, he gives it to her anyway (Crosman 208). Likewise, when the aldermen write and call to collect her taxes, she refuses to acknowledge that she owes them and at the end they are never paid. From this perspective, Emily’s reason for killing Homer might have been merely to control a situation that had he lived would have been under his control. Helen Nebeker (8) compares Emily to the â€Å"indomitable but dying Old South in all its decadence, pride, [and] refusal to admit the changing order.† She symbolizes the South’s ability to stand firm while the winds of change circulate all around her, and although she evokes pity, she remains standing in triumph until the very end, when her own death hands a victory to the New South waiting in the wings (Nebeker 9). Nebeker (11) states that â€Å"Emily’s South, though dead and buried and forgiven, has left its horror imprinted forever on the structure and in the persons of the present.† As a symbol of the Old South, Emily’s murder of Homer represents the South’s resistance to change, even though that resistance means clinging to something that is already old, dead, and stinking. From this perspective, Emily’s motivation for murdering Homer is to keep the status quo alive. Cleanth Brooks (13) argues that â€Å"there is an element of the heroic† about Emily’s murder of Homer, as well, even though the crime is also â€Å"monstrous.† Brooks notes that Emily never â€Å"strive[s] to keep up with the Joneses† but remains the one that everyone else keeps up with (Brooks 13). Certainly, as she maintains control, it is also clear that Emily does not grovel to anyone. She does what she pleases and refuses to do what she does not want to do, in a splendid reversal of the bondage she grew up in under her father. Finally, Emily believes that love can and will end if not frozen in time by death, a gruesome but understandable idea considering that she had never yet experienced a love that did not end. However, a love that is frozen in death is not the love that most women want; they want companionship, tenderness, and a listening ear- not the mere presence of a body that can afford none of these things. Why precisely did Emily kill Homer? Faulkner leaves it to the reader to decide, but elements of all of these reasons and motivations would likely have played a part in her actions had Emily been a real woman instead of a character. Real people are complex, and there is often not a sole clear-cut reason for their actions but rather a dynamic push and pull among many reasons that causes each of them to have an influence on the final decision. In the last analysis, whatever reasons Emily had for killing Homer, no one can argue that she did it quite deliberately and with planning, so she made a choice that could never be reversed and then lived with that choice for the rest of her life. Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: First Encounters. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1985. Web. 20 Feb, 2010 Crosman, Robert. â€Å"How Readers Make Meaning.† College Literature, 9.3, The Newest Criticisms (Fall 1982), 207-215. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb, 2010 Nebeker, Helen. â€Å"Emily’s Rose of Love: Thematic Implications of Point of View in Faulkner’s ‘A Rose for Emily.’† The Bulletin of the Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association, 24.1, (Mar 1970), 3-13. JSTOR. Web. 26 Feb, 2010. Perry, Menakhem. â€Å"Literary Dynamics: How the Order of a Text Creates its Meanings [With an Analysis of Faulkner’s â€Å"A Rose for Emily†]. Poetics Today, 1.1/2, Special Issue: Literature, Interpretation, Communication, (Autumn 1979), 35-361. JSTOR. Web. 1 Mar, 2010 Research Papers on "A Rose for Emily" by William FaulknerThe Fifth HorsemanCapital PunishmentBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XMind TravelArguments for Physician-Assisted Suicide (PAS)Personal Experience with Teen PregnancyThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionTrailblazing by Eric Anderson

How to Improve Your SAT Score by 100 Points in a Month

How to Improve Your SAT Score by 100 Points in a Month SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Preparing for the SAT a second or third time is common. Back when I studied for the SAT, the first couple of strategies and study approaches I tried didn't actually work. It took me a few times before I finally foundthe method that bumped up my SAT score 200 points- toa perfect score. If you'reretaking the SATand want to ensure you improve this time around, this guide will show you how to do just that! Who Is This SAT Guide For? "How can I improve my SAT score in just a month?" This is a common question I get from students. Roughly paraphrased, it looks like this: Hey, Fred! I'm John, and I've gotten scores of 600 in both Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing. I've taken the SAT a couple of times already, and I need to improve by just 100 points the next time I take it for a total of around 1300. I've tried other test-prep companies and racked my brain for ways to improve my SAT score. I've memorized vocab and taken practice tests. This isn't my first try at the SAT by far. Do I have any hope of raising my score by this many points?This will be my third time taking the SAT, and I don't want to take it again after this! Please help! This request for help raises an important question:who exactly is this SAT guide for?If, like John, you're studying for the SAT a second or third time and your Math and EBRW scores are currently around average (400-600), this guide should work well for you. Now that we've clarified who this guide is for, let's look at the six crucial steps you'll need to take to raise your SAT score by 100 points in one month. Step 1: Improve Your Math Score For the SAT Math section, you'll need to prioritize your time so that you're spending less time on questions you know how to solve and more on those that are hard for you. At your score level, I'd do what I call the "two-pass" method on both the No Calculator and Calculator sections. First, let's look at the basics of the Math No Calculator and Calculator sections: Section Total # of Questions Total Time Time per Question Math No Calculator 20 (15 multiple choice, 5 grid-ins) 25 minutes 75 seconds Math Calculator 38 (30 multiple choice, 8 grid-ins) 55 minutes 87 seconds As you can see, you'll get more questions, more total time, and more time per question on the Math Calculator section than you will on the Math No Calculator section. Now, let's look at how to use the two-pass method on each of the Math sections. Math No Calculator Section: Two-Pass Strategy On your first pass through the No Calculator section, do only the questions you know how to approach within about five seconds of reading them.You don't need to solve each question in five seconds, but you do need to know exactly what solving each question entails. If you know how to approach a question, try to solve it within 55 seconds. On the other hand, if you can't find a solution approach within five seconds, skip that question for now! By the time you finish your first pass, you should have tried about 10-15 problems and spent 10-15 minutes in total on the section. This gives you 10-15 minutes left to attack the rest of the section. Now, it's time for round two: reread all the problems you didn't solve. Because you've already looked at each of them for five seconds, you should have an idea of which ones are easier and which ones are harder. Do these questions in order of your personal difficulty. Once you only have about a minute left in the section, go through your scoring sheet and confirm that you've filled in an answer for each No Calculator question. Remember that it's OK to guess on a few since there's no penalty for incorrect answers! Math Calculator Section: Two-Pass Strategy With the Calculator section, do only the questions you know how to approachwithin about 10 seconds of reading them.Like the No Calculator section, you don't need to solve each of them within 10 seconds, but you should recognizehow to solve them right away. If you know how to approach a problem, try to solve it within 60 seconds. If, however, you can't figure out how to solve it within 10 seconds of reading it, skip it for now. Once you've finished your first pass, you should have attempted about 25-30 questions and spent about 30-35 minutes on the section. This means you'll have about 20-25 minutes left. Next, for round two, use your remaining time to go back through all the questions you didn't solve on your first pass. Since you've already looked at each question for 10 seconds, you should be able to identify which ones are easier and which ones are harder for you. Do these questions in order of your personal difficulty. When you have about a minute left in the section, check that you've put down an answer for every question. Again, there's no penalty for incorrect answers on the SAT, so it's recommended you fill in something, even if you have to guess! Step 2: Improve Your Reading Score Some say your SAT Reading score is the hardest to improve, and in some ways it is. You've got to read lengthy passages and be able to identify where you've found answers to certain questions. By far the easiest way to improve your Reading score is to practice an effective passage-reading strategy.Our recommended strategy involves the following steps: Quickly read the questions first, identifying the types of questions being asked. Read the information blurb at the beginning of the passage. Read/skim the passage, paying attention to the last line of the introductory paragraph (i.e., the thesis) and opening sentences in body paragraphs and the conclusion. Answer the questions. You should also practice our #1 tip, which is to always look for the 100% unambiguously correct answer choice.Essentially, this is the same thing as the process of elimination. Even though many answer choices can sound right, only one will completely and accurately answer the question. Knowing this fact will help you be better able to pinpoint which choices are clearly wrong. Step 3: Improve Your Writing and Language Score Besides knowing all major SAT grammar rules, remember this key tip: don't just use your ear! So many students try to detect grammar mistakes relying only on how sentences sound. While this strategy might work for the easiest problems, the only way to ultimately master SAT Writing and Languageis to understand grammar on an analytical level. What does knowing grammar analytically mean, though? It's not only knowing grammar rules but alsobeing able to cite which rule is being broken.If you can identify what rule is being broken, you'll know exactly how to fix the sentence so that the rule is not being broken. Want to learn more about the SAT but tired of reading blog articles? Then you'll love our free, SAT prep livestreams. Designed and led by PrepScholar SAT experts, these live video events are a great resource for students and parents looking to learn more about the SAT and SAT prep. Click on the button below to register for one of our livestreams today! Step 4: Record Your Weaknesses Now that you've shored up your baseline skills for each section, it's time to study in a way that attacks your unique issues with the SAT. Here's how to do this: take two official SAT practice tests. As you take them, circle all the problems you're not sure of, regardless of whether you get them right or not. At the end of the tests, copy the problems you circled into a mistakes journal. Some of the best tutors I know recommend making three mistakes journals, one for each section of the test. They also recommend- for students with more time- taking more than two practice tests for these mistakes journals. After all, the more data, the better! Step 5: Identify Your Weaknesses With all your mistakes written down, start tagging them with keywords.Examples of keywords include the following: Vocab issue Careless mistake Ran out of time Didn't understand author's intent Each question in your mistakes journal should now be tagged with one or more keywords explaining why you think you got it wrong. Next,tally up these reasons tocreate a list showing the number of problems you missed for each reason. Here's an example of what your list might look like: Vocab issue: 4 questions Careless mistake: questions Ran out of time: 13 questions Didn't understand author's intent: 8 questions And so on. Step 6: Fix Your Weaknesses For each weakness, come up with a method to fix it.For example, if you missed a few vocabulary questions on the Reading and Writing sections, you might want to study more words. For authorial intent, you could practice by reading short passages and thinking in the author's shoes. After going through the first few items on your list, your score should now be much higher! This method of journaling and analyzing your weaknesses works wonders.It helped me improve my own SAT score by 200 points! The best part of this method is that it's scientific: itworks by targeting your weakest issues first to ensure that your overall SAT score improves by a lot- ideally, 100 points- in the month you've got left before test day! What's Next? Want a system that automatically does the tallying for you? Then check out our online SAT prep program.We use advanced computer analysis to figure out your weaknesses and help you target them effectively in your prep. Not sure what SAT score you need to be aiming for?Read our in-depth article on how to set an SAT goal score based on the colleges you're applying to. For more SAT help, take a look at ourour expert guide to improving your SAT score,and try out our month-long SAT study plan.