Aaron C's response to "On 'A Rose for Emily'"

I will be thoroughly honest when I saw the title of my RFIW as stated on the blog “A Rose for Emily” two thoughts popped through my mind; oh crap not you again, due to weeks spent on reading and analysis of the short story in my AP Literature class in high school, and I thought we were learning people’s thoughts on concepts or other’s writing not reading short stories. I was pleasantly surprised first when I turned to the correct page in the book and saw it was titled “On “A Rose For Emily” “ by Cleanth Brooks and not “A Rose For Emily” by Faulkner.

Cleanth Brooks introduced a new concept of Faulkner’s story.  I always believed “A Rose For Emily” was a representation of his view on the decaying Southern aristocracy. But as Brooks revealed Faulkner was indeed really writing about people in his short story.

I found it interesting how we can take the story of “A Rose for Emily” as a warning. Many warnings are seen from her as a “lighthouse” but the most pressing one would be the danger of pride and isolation.  She stated she believed that it was to show that pride and isolation lead to insanity but I would not go as far to say that. But I believe that pride is what would lead to isolation do to the fact that you push others away from you. This isolation will lead to an emptiness in our life and leave it lonely and void of meaning. 

Whether the insanity of isolation and pride captures us is up to us. The key to keeping at bay is to continually care for the other individual whether in friendship, love, or service. Even the smallest gesture of actually stopping and listening to a person’s response to our, “Hey how are you?” when we see them. This will build in us the knowledge of the value of individuals and how we treat them permanently filling it with purpose.