William Faulkner is Nobel Prize winning American novelist, famous for his novels and short stories. The novelist wrote much using the themes of crime, suspense and mystery. For instance, the theme that he developed in his most famous short story, “A Rose for Emily,” was based on a psychopath caused socially by the un-needed over protection of adults by their parents. It begins with the last arrangements of Miss Emily Grierson’s dead body. The deceased was a youngest of a family living in Old Jefferson in Mississippi. She spent her life in an old family house in a seedy neighborhood that was quite fashionable once. She was immensely attached with her father who protected her from the bad intentions of the young women in the town as hard as with a horsewhip. She was too attached to her father to let his dead body to be released for three days.
Emily got hooked up with a new arrival in the town Mr. Barron when she was thought to be too good for any of the local men in the town. Mr. Barron who arrived in the town as a foreman to a team of construction, had courtship with Miss Emily and the whole town expected them to get married. However, they apparently saw Homer Barron moved on. Miss Emily Rose, with the passage of time lived more and more in solitude. Right after her funeral town’ s men along with the narrator of the story entered Miss Emily’ s house and forced their way to rooms locked upstairs. They were shocked and horrified to see the stuffed body of Homer Brown. On the pillow beside him was a head shaped indention with a long iron grey hair strand (Malone & Edward, 1990).
Necrophilia of Miss Emily is a graphical evidence that he withheld the past and rejected to live in the present. The short story is a read of horror and psychopathy. The story is vividly containing a detective element in it as Miss Emily goes to a pharmacy and buys arsenic right before the disappearance of Homer Barron and people saw him entering Grierson’ s house from the backdoor od kitchen in the evening and a dreadful stench surrounded Emily’ s house for a while. The story provides the reader with all the clues to anticipate the climax scene. By above described plots of the story it can be analyzed that Miss Emily suffered from socio-psychological situations that led her to commit a murder and horrifyingly stuff the dead body to remain with herself till the end of her life.
In Barn Burning, William Faulkner used a theme of bad situations and circumstances causing abrupt action of murder as compared to the horrifying psychopath in “A Rose for Emily”. The Characters are portrayed in a very different social background from “A Rose for Emily” s fine status in the town.In Barn Burning, a small kid named Sarty happens to arrive a country store, he is hungry and craves for the cheese and meat in the store and feels fearful. His father is facing the trial in the court as h is accused for burnt down of Mr. Harris’s barn. Sarty is called into the court for testifying and he is aware that he will be lying in telling that his father is innocent. Mr. Harris and the justice happen to see that they have put a child in a bad situation and let him go along with his father telling him to leave the town and never return.
When Sarty came out of the court a boy named him “Barn Burner” and beats him twice. Sarty failed to chase the kid as he had to move into the family van to move out of the town. In the new farm, Sarty had hoped everything to get alright but accidently his father ruined the rug of Mr. de Spain and de Spain did not take pity on his family’ s bad conditions and charged him 20 bushels. Abner, (Sarty’ s father) went to court and the Justice after finding that he damaged de Spain’ s rug told him pay 10 Bushels. Abner was not happy with the situation and planned to burn the barn of de Spain, Sarty sensing the bad action of his father ran to inform de Spain but could not. He lost his father but did not feel sad about it as he thought him as the major cause of problems in his and his family’s life (Yunis & Susan, 1991).
In both the stories, characters have com mitted serious crimes, but the Faulkner have provided background causes of these crimes, making the readers to feel sympathetic towards the guilty. Miss Emily Rose and Abner Snopes have been shown in very different socio-economic status and position. Emily belongs to a well reputed and fine family in the town whereas, Abner is a poor farmer working on wages for the masters of the farms. Emily belonged to a well- of family and was over protected by his father who deceased and left her alone in the world of untrustworthy people and Abner Snopes was looked down upon by the society considering him poor and not offering him accommodating circumstances. Emily was a psychopath inclined towards necrophilia and extra- introvert not socializing at all with the people in community not having a family. Whereas, Abner Snopes was a victim of unsettling social and economic conditions for him and his family. “A Rose for Emily” is written in an expression by a narrator whereas the events in the “Barn burning” are described in association with a child family member of Abner Sopes. Main characters of the both the stories are portrayed in a completely different backgrounds and conditions of life (“William Faulkner Mystery & Detective Fiction Analysis – Essay – ENotes.Com”). Plotting of the scenes of crime is extremely different as Emily committed murder too silent to be known to anybody whereas Abner’ s crimes were open , loud and furious. However the influence of father is a similar in both the stories. As per narration style “A Rose for Emily” has been told in first person ehereas, “Barn Burning” is told in a third person narration.
Works Cited
Yunis, Susan S. “The Narrator of Faulkner’s” Barn Burning”.” The Faulkner Journal 6.2 (1991): 23.
Malone, Edward A. “Nabokov on Faulkner.” The Faulkner Journal 5.2 (1990): 63.
“William Faulkner Mystery & Detective Fiction Analysis – Essay – ENotes.Com.” ENotes, http://www.enotes.com/topics/william-faulkner/critical-essays/analysis-2.
