A Rose For Emily And Her Conflicts

A Rose for Emily and Her Conflicts

In this story, the narrator is the townspeople of Jefferson. Emily Grierson was sort of like a mystery to the townspeople throughout the story. She was sort of a secluded kind of person. She lived in a decaying house that used to be white, but now has a sort of off color. Emily in her early childhood struggled with the approval from her father. Her father every time would force every man who was interested in her or possibly loved her away for what seems in most people’s opinion because they weren’t good enough for the father’s standards. So when her father had passed away, she fell in love with a man who goes by the name Homer Barron. He was not interested in Emily as she was interested in him. Homer had proclaimed to like men and spend time with men. When Emily heard this she had poisoned him to death. After, she took the body to a dark lifeless room located in the highest part of her house were she had spent the rest of her days sleeping next to the corpse.

There is a conflict and confusing relation between Emily and Jefferson's townspeople through out the story. Emily’s family, the Griersons, was a very important family in Jefferson Town. The townspeople seem to obey and respect the certain order Emily was apart of in that family. "Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town" (p. 32). However, she was the centre of all the gossip in the town especially when her relationship with Homer Barron started. Even though the town looked at Emily as "a tradition, a duty, and a care", when Homer disappeared, the whole city said that she was insane. Even though they saw this, the sad part is that no one seemed to care enough to help her.

The first conflictive thing that happened in "A Rose for Emily" happens when Emily bought arsenic from the drug store. The pharmacist knew that she was insane and she would kill herself. Even so, Emily some how talked the pharmacist into selling the arsenic to her. “Why, of course”, the pharmacist said. “If that's what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for”. “Miss Emily just stared at him, her head tilted back in order to look him eye for eye, until he looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up." (p. 36).

The self-respect and reputation her family had did not allow the city authorities to help Emily directly, because they did not want to hurt her self-respect. Emily's self-respect