The Major Years Isolation and Emily Grierson A Essay Example For Students

The Major Years: Isolation and Emily Grierson A Essay Deadly Combination William Faulkner, one of the most famed writers of our times, exploresin his writing the themes of alienation and isolation. He interweaves thesethemes with his female characters. In A Rose for Emily, Miss Emily Grierson is awoman who is alienated and lives in isolation from the people in her town. Thetheme of isolation is the focal point of the story, since it is what drove herto her madness. Faulkners theme of alienation comes up many times in his writing. Inthe book The Major Years, Melvin Backman states that Faulkner was reaching for amore decent life and more decent people in the midst of evil. He was reachingfor love, innocence, simplicity, and strength, but he also knew that thesethings were being hidden by reality. With Faulkner, as with all men, thepersonal condition underlay and shaped his view of the human condition (Backman,p.183). The critic goes on to note that men in Faulkners works tend toundermine women and their roles in society. Women are oppressed and are usuallycontrolled by men. The women try to fight the men in their society and aretrying to find a way to escape from their grasps. They are hesitant to stand upto the men and instead they tend to hide away. Backman notes that, The will toconfront reality seems to be losing out to the need to escape(p.184). Miss Emily is a woman who had the whole town wondering what she wasdoing, but did not allow anyone the pleasure of finding out. Once the men thatshe cared about in life deserted her, either by death or by simply leaving her,she hid out and did not allow anyone to get close to her. Miss Emily was indeedafraid to confront the reality that Backman discusses. Since she did not want toaccept the fact that the people she cared about were gone, she hid in her houseand did not go out. She was the perfect example of a woman alienated by asociety controlled by men who make trouble for her instead of helping her. Minrose Gwin, author of The Feminine and Faulkner, states that severalof Faulkners female characters, including Emily Grierson, are indeed activedisruptive subjects in their narratives; theirs are voices which denounce andsubvert male power(Gwin, p.8). They do what they do , such as killing HomerBarron in Emilys case, because they are tired of men telling them what to do. Gwin further states that the patriarchal world creates its own imagesof women. Emily tried to challenge these images by not being what the men in hersociety would consider normal. The men felt that all women should tend totheir homes and be sociable, not locked up in a house with a manservant to cleanit. They also felt that it was not right for a man to be doing that kind ofwork; it was a womans job to clean the house. Just as if a manany mancouldkeep a kitchen properly, the ladies said; so they were not surprised when thesmell developed. It was another link between the gross, teeming world and thehigh and mighty Griersons(p.26). Backman, paraphrasing Wright Morris in The Territory Ahead, says thatflight and nostalgia are essential to American life, The American flees the rawand uncongenial present for a mythic and desired past(Backman, p.185). Thisperfectly summarizes Emilys character because she is trying to leave thepresent and go back to a happier past. She is attempting to recapture her pastbecause she needs to find the love she once knew. After her fathers death shewent out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her atall(p. 26). Emily alienated herself from anyone when the two people that onceloved her went away. She was afraid to grow close to anyone in fear of losingthem again. .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .postImageUrl , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:hover , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:visited , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:active { border:0!important; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:active , .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32 .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u1a1858850bb8c69019bf782ac1b50e32:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Mind over Matter Essay Emily was a headstrong woman that seemed frail and weak, but wasinstead very strong. She had the whole town convinced that she could not hurt afly, but instead she was capable of the worst of crimes, murder. Faulkners works convey a deep sense of oppression and withdrawal,yet they convey too the struggle with self and society. In the midst of defeatand despair a small center of resistance resides(Backman, p.186). Emily, in themiddle of all the alienation and isolation she felt from the residents of hertown, also found the resistance to show them she was not someone to be takenlightly. BIBLIOGRAPHYBackman, Melvin. Faulkner: The Major Years, A Critical Study. Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1966Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction,Poetry, and Drama. Ed. X.J. Kennedy. New York: Harpers Collins, 1991. Pp. 24-31Gwin, Minrose c. The Femenine and Faulkner: Reading (Beyond) Sexual Difference. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1990Morris, Wright. The Territory Ahead. The Macmillan Company, 1957. Category: English