A Rose For Emily

A writer's choice of words can be the fall or the rise of the author's work. Using diction, writers are able to make words come alive and illustrate a particular scene that the author wants to portray. If diction is not used, the idea trying to be portrayed can become blasÐ"©. Readers are more captivated to read works if the story is more descriptive and influential. For example, compare the two following sentences: the old brown tree is dying, and the aged russet tree slowly decays into the earth. Of the two sentences, the second sentences uses diction that is able to let the reader's imagination run wild. William Faulkner is unique writer who is able to manipulate a mere sentence into an image that captivates the reader's minds. In "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner uses diction to enhance his mysterious happenings of Emily Grierson's life from the way the townspeople behave all the way to Emily's unrequited love for Homer Barron.

In "A Rose for Emily", the underlying theme was that nothing is as it appears. The neighborhood that Miss Emily lived in was solely concerned about what other people thought of their community although they claim that it is all for the well being of Miss Emily. Faulkner uses diction that strongly portrays the citizens as nosy and outlandish people, "Ð''Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.' But there were still others, older peopleÐ'... could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse obligeÐ'... Ð''Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.'" In our modern language noblesse oblige is not a word that we have even heard of much less use in everyday diction. Having such a phrase brings about a sense of traditional language since noblesse oblige was a phrase often used in a society with aristocrats where there was a gap between the high class and low class. The community only gossiped about Miss Emily, but they have yet to discover who she really is. They gossip as if they know her and are concerned about her well being, but that is not the case. If they were concerned with her well being then they would have made visits to her house ages ago. The townspeople think that because Miss Emily is infatuated with a Northern, a day laborer, they feel that it is their obligation to remind her that she is a lady of high class and should behave as such. They base their opinions of people by his or her status in society, and they didn't understand that Miss Emily was in love with Homer Barron. To Emily, it did not matter whether he was wealthy or not.

The community believed that Miss Emily was a haughty and eccentric woman, who was not much of a threat; they claim that they were watching over her. They allow her to get away with acts that are against the law, "I want arsenicÐ'... But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it forÐ'...ho looked away and went and got the arsenic and wrapped it up." The druggist sold Miss Emily the poison without receiving a valid reason for buying the poison. This is against the law and yet Miss Emily was able to get away with it. In a way the townspeople baby Miss Emily, allowing her to get whatever she wanted. This proves to be a problem though; Miss Emily probably used the arsenic to kill off Homer so he wouldn't leave her, which contradicts that false illusion that the townspeople had of Miss Emily, which was the innocently snooty woman. Also if they were "watching over" Miss Emily then the druggist