A Rose For Emily

The Foreshadowing of What Happened

To Homer Barron

The story of “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, shows many examples of foreshadowing. The greatest representations of foreshadowing is the climax of Homer Baron’s discovery. Throughout the story hinting of this odd ending is addressed in the smell, the poison and the unveiling of the locked floor. These are excellent clues that leads to the unearthing of Homer Baron’s body.

In the beginning of the story the town starts complaining of a horrible smell coming from Ms. Emily’s home. In the quote, “just as if a man-any man--could keep a kitchen properly”(Faulkner 151), it shows how the women accuse the male servant of the smell because they stereotype how bad men are in the kitchen since it isn’t their place. Another accusation of the smell from the butler is Judge Stevens when he states, “it’s probably just a snake or rat that nigger of her killed in the yard.”(Faulkner 152). These two quotes suggest the smell to be from the butler but kept us on the edge of what that smell really was. They resolved the problem of stopping the stench but it gave us no real clarification of if it really was the butler or not.

In another section of the story Emily plans on buying arsenic. “I want the best you have. I don’t care what kind,” (Faulkner 154), this quote made by Emily to the town druggist, when she wants the strongest poison. This line questions the reader what she might need it for and why the strongest one. The druggist answers back to her, “they’ll kill anything up to an elephant,” (Faulkner 154), this was a point the made to let her know that it kills huge animals not only just rats. When Emily goes home she finds “written on the box, under the skull and cross bones-’for ratsвЂ™Ð²Ð‚Ñœ (Faulkner 154), this makes the readers think whether she might use it on herself or for someone else.

The final point that leads us to the climax of Homer Baron is the opening of the top floor. Before the townspeople and family entered to investigate the home the servant answered the door and right afterwards “he walked right through the house and out the back