A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily" is ashort storybyAmericanauthorWilliam Faulknerfirst published in

the April 30, 1930 issue of Forum. This story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city.
Jefferson, Mississippi, in the fictional county ofYoknapatawpha CountyIt was
Faulkner's first short story published in a national magazine. Plot
The story is told innonlinear narrativeand begins at the huge funeral for Miss Emily Grierson.
Nobody has been to her house in ten years, except for her black servant. Her house is old, but
was once the best house around. The town had a special relationship with Miss Emily ever since
it decided to stop billing her for taxes in 1894. But, the 'newer generation' wasn't happy with
this arrangement, and so they paid a visit to Miss Emily and tried to get her to pay the debt. She
refused to acknowledge that the old arrangement might not work any more, and flatly refused to
pay.

Thirty years ago, the tax collecting townspeople had a strange encounter with Miss Emily.
about a bad smell at her place. This was about two years after her father died, and a short time
after her lover disappeared from her life. The stench got stronger and complaints were made, but
the authorities didn't want to confront Emily about the problem. So, they sprinkled lime around
the house and the smell was eventually gone.

Everybody felt sorry for Emily when her father died. He left her with the house, but no money.
When he died, Emily refused to admit it for three whole days. The town didn't think she was
crazy then,

Next, the story doubles back and tells us that not too long after her father died, Emily begins
dating Homer Barron, who is in town on a sidewalk-building project. The town heavily
disapproves of the affair and brings Emily's cousins to town to stop the relationship. One day,
Emily is seen buying arsenic at the drugstore, and the town thinks that Homer is giving her "The
Shaft," and that she plans to kill herself.

When she buys a bunch of men's items, they think that she and Homer are going to get married.
Homer leaves town, then the cousins leave town, and then Homer comes back. He is last seen
entering Miss Emily's house. Emily herself rarely leaves the home after that, except for a period
of half a dozen years when she gives painting lessons.

Her hair turns gray, she gains weight, and she eventually dies in a downstairs bedroom that hasn't
seen light in many years. The story cycles back to where it began, at her funeral. Tobe, Ms.
Emily's servant lets in the town women and then leaves by the backdoor forever. After the
funeral, and after Emily is buried, the townspeople go upstairs to break into the room that they
know has been closed for forty years.

Inside, they find the corpse of Homer Barron, rotting in the bed. On the dust of the pillow next to
Homer, they find an indentation of a head, and there, in the indentation, a long, gray hair.
Character List

Emily Grierson - An eccentric recluse, Emily is a mysterious figure who changes from a vibrant
and hopeful young girl to a cloistered and secretive old woman. Devastated and alone after her
father’s death, she is an object of pity for the townspeople. After a life of having potential suitors
rejected by her father, she spends time after his death with a newcomer, Homer Barron, although
the chances of his marrying her decrease as the years pass. Bloated and pallid in her later years,
her hair turns steel gray. She ultimately poisons Homer and seals his corpse into an upstairs
room.

Homer Barron- A foreman from the North. Homer is a large man with a dark complexion.
booming voice, and light-colored eyes. A gruff and demanding boss, he wins many admirers in
Jefferson because of his gregarious nature and good sense of humor. He develops an interest in
Emily and takes her for Sunday drives in a yellow-wheeled buggy. Despite his attributes, the
townspeople view him as a poor, if not scandalous, choice for a mate. He disappears in Emily's
house and decomposes in an attic bedroom after she poisons him. She sleeps with the corpse of
Homer.

Judge Stevens - A mayor of Jefferson. Eighty years old, Judge Stevens attempts to delicately
handle the complaints about the smell emanating from the Grierson property. To be respectful of
Emily's pride and former position in the community, he and the aldermen decide to sprinkle lime.
on the property in the middle of the night.

Mr. Grierson- Emily's father. Mr. Grierson is a controlling, looming presence even in death.
and the community clearly sees his lasting influence over Emily. He deliberately thwarts Emily's
attempts to find a husband in order to keep her under his control. We get glimpses of him in the
story: in the crayon portrait kept on the gilt-edged easel in the parlor, and silhouetted in the
doorway, horsewhip in hand, having chased off another of his daughter's suitors.

Tobe - An African American. Emily's servant. Tobe, his voice supposedly rusty from lack of
use, is the only lifeline Emily has to the outside world and he cares for her and tends to her
needs. After her death, he walks out the back door and never returns.

Colonel Sartoris - A former mayor of Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris absolves Emily of any tax.
burden after the death of her father, which later causes consternation to succeeding generations
of town leaders.

Narrator- The first-person narrative voice of the story is one of the new generation of citizen's
in Jefferson who is involved with dealing with Emily. He begins his story after attending Emily's
funeral.

Themes

Resistance to change- Perhaps the most recurrent theme in the story. Despite the family's fallen
fortunes, Emily's father resists allowing any suitors to propose to Emily. This gradually erodes
her chances of ever being married. She eventually settles for Homer, but the townspeople see this
as an affront to her noble heritage, and she eventually murders Homer and dies a recluse. Emily's
inability to realize her father's death and refusal to adapt to a changing world intensify her
seclusion.

Billy Budd

is anovellabegun in November 1888 byAmericanauthorHerman Melville, left unfinished at

his death in 1891 and not published until 1924. The work has been central to Melville
scholarship since it was discovered in manuscript form among Melville's papers in 1919 by
Raymond Weaver, his first biographer.[1]

It has an ignominious editorial history, as poor transcription and misinterpretation of Melville's

Notes on the manuscript marred the first published editions of the text. For example, early
versions gave the book's title as Billy Budd, Foretopman, while it now seems clear Melville
intendedBilly Budd, Sailor: (An Inside Narrative); some versions wrongly included a chapter
that Melville had removed as a preface (the correct text has no preface); some versions do not
change the name of the ship to BellipotentLatinwar and powerful
from Indomitable, as Melville called her in an earlier draft. It is unclear of his full intentions in
changing the name of the ship since he only included the name Bellipotent six times.

The plot follows Billy Budd, a [Link] service aboard HMS Bellipotent in the
year 1797, when theRoyal Navywas reeling from twomajor mutiniesand was threatened by the
Revolutionary French Republic's military ambitions. He is impressed from another ship, The
Rights of Man (named after the very topical)bookbyThomas Paineof that period, leading Budd
to shout as it leaves 'good-by to you too, old Rights-of-Man' clearly intended to have a double
meaning, and considered so by the crew who hear it).

Billy, an orphaned illegitimate child suffused with innocence, openness and natural charisma, is
adored by the crew, but for unexplained reasons arouses the antagonism of the ship'sMaster-at-
armsJohn Claggart, who falsely accuses Billy of conspiracy to mutiny. When Claggart brings
His charges to the Captain, the Hon. Edward Fairfax 'Starry' Vere, Vere summons both Claggart
and Billy to his cabin for a private confrontation. When, in Billy's and Vere's presence, Claggart
makes his false charges, Billy is unable to find the words to respond owing to a speech
impediment. Unable to express himself verbally, he strikes and accidentally kills Claggart.

The last known image of the author, taken in 1885.

Vere, an eminently thoughtful man whose name recalls the Latin words 'veritas' (truth) and
"vir" (man) as well as the English word "veer," then convenes adrumhead court-martialHe acts
asconvening authority, prosecutor, defense counsel and sole witness (except for Billy himself).
He then intervenes in the deliberations of the court-martial panel to argue them into convicting.
Billy, despite their and his belief in Billy's innocence before God. (As Vere says in the moments
following Claggart's death, 'Struck dead by an angel of God! Yet the angel must hang!') Vere
claims to be following the letter of theMutiny Actand theArticles of War.
Having started the process, Vere and the other officers find that their own opinion matters little.
We are not talking about justice, we are talking about the law, that is, the law dictates what
must follow, whether or not it is fair. The law states that an enlisted man killing an officer during
Wartime (accidentally or not) must hang. Vere spells out the awful truth and explains their
inability to mete out leniency.

At his insistence, the court-martial convicts Billy; Vere argues that any appearance of weakness
in the officers and failure to enforce discipline could stir the already turbulent waters of mutiny
throughout the British fleet. Condemned to be hanged from the ship'syardarmat dawn the
morning after the killing, Billy's final words are, "God bless Captain Vere!", which is then
repeated by the gathered crew in a 'resonant and sympathetic echo.' The story may have been
based on events onboardUSSSomersan American naval vessel; one of the defendants in the
later investigation was a first cousin of Melville, [Link] Gansevoort.

The novel closes with three chapters that cloak the story with further ambiguity:

• Chapter 28 describes the death of Captain Vere. In a naval action with a French vessel.
named theAthié (theAthiist),Captain Vere is mortally wounded and carried belowHis
Billy Budd, Billy Budd.
• Chapter 29 presents an extract from an official naval gazette purporting to give the facts
of the fates of John Claggart and Billy Budd aboard HMS Bellipotent— but the 'facts'
offered turn the facts that the reader learned from the story upside down. In the gazette
William Budd is a seaman but a conspiring mutineer probably of foreign birth and
mysterious antecedents who, when confronted by the honest John Claggart, the master-at-
arms loyally enforcing the law on board one of His Majesty's ships, stabs Claggart to the
heart, killing him. The gazette concludes that the manner of the crime, and the weapon
used, both point to Budd's foreign birth and subversive character; it then reports that the
The mutineer has paid the price of his crime and nothing more is amiss aboard HMS.
mighty in war
• Chapter 30 reprints a cheaply printed ballad written by one of Billy's shipmates as a kind
of elegy for the Handsome Sailor. And yet the adult, experienced man depicted by the
The poem is not at all the young innocent whom the reader has met in the preceding chapters.

The Luck of Roaring Camp is ashort storyby American authorBret HarteIt was first
published in the August 1868 issue of theOverland Monthlyand helped push Harte to
international prominence.[1]

The story is about the birth of a baby boy in the 19th [Link] prospectingcamp. The boy's
mother, Cherokee Sal, dies in childbirth, so the men of Roaring Camp must raise it themselves.
Believing the child to be a good luck charm, the miners christen the boy Thomas Luck.
Afterwards, they decide to refine their behavior and refrain from gambling and fighting.
end of the story, however, Luck and a villager, Kentuck, perish in aflash floodthat strikes the
camp. The flood theme may have come from theGreat Flood of California, witnessed by Harte
in 1862, which resulted from weeks of torrential rains throughout the entire state, combined with
warming temperatures in mid January that melted the snowpack. In addition to the melt-waters,
according to the Sacramento Union newspapers of the day, six to ten feet of rain fell in some
mining areas near Grass Valley.

Plot summary

Bret Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp is a short story of a small struggling mining town.
located in the foothills of the California mountains at the time of thegold rushThe camp is
suffering from a long string of bad luck. With only one woman in their midst, it seems as though
the miners have no future. However, the tide turns when a small boy is born. “Thomas Luck” is
the first newborn the camp has seen in ages; things are looking up. The miners become cheerful,
foliage begins to grow, there's talk of building a hotel to attract outsiders. Unfortunately, the
hope is wiped out by the sudden death of Luck in a flood. Water brought gold to the gulches,
giving miners their first glimmer of hope. And water takes away what seems their last glimmer--
Luck.

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is ashort storyby American authorAmbrose Bierce.

Originally published by theThe San Francisco Examinerin 1890, it was first collected in
Bierce's 1891 bookTales of Soldiers and CiviliansThe story, which is set during theCivil War,
is famous for its irregular time sequence andtwist endingIt is Bierce's most anthologized story.
[1]

Plot summary

Set during theAmerican Civil WarAn Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge is the story of Peyton
Farquhar, aConfederatesympathizer condemned to death byhangingfrom Owl Creek Bridge.
At the beginning of the story, the protagonist stands bound at the bridge's edge. It is later
revealed that after a disguisedUnionscout enlisted him to attempt to demolish the bridge, he was
caught in the act.

In the first part of the story, a gentlemanly planter in his mid-30s is standing on a railroad bridge.
inAlabamaSix military men and a company of infantry men are present. The man is to be
hanged. As he is waiting, he thinks of his wife and children. Then he is distracted by a
tremendous noise. He can not identify this noise, other than that it sounds like the clanging of a
blacksmith's hammer on the anvil. He cannot tell if it was far away or nearby. He finds himself
apprehensively awaiting each strike, which seem to grow further and further apart. It is revealed
that this noise is the ticking of his watch. Then, an escape plan flashes through his mind: "throw
off the noose and spring into the stream. By diving I could evade the bullets and, swimming
vigorously, take to the woods and get away home." His thoughts stray back to his wife and
children. The soldiers drop him down.

The story flashes back in time: Peyton Farquhar lives in the South and is a majorConfederate
supporter. He goes out of his way to perform services to support and help the Confederate side.
One day, a gray-clad soldier appears at his house and tells Farquhar that Union soldiers in the
area have been repairing the railroads, including the one over Owl Creek Bridge. Interested,
Farquhar asks if it is possible to sabotage the bridge, to which the soldier replies that he could.
burn it down. When the soldier leaves, it is revealed that he is a Union scout who has lured
Farquhar into a trap, as anyone caught interfering with the railroads would face the noose.

When he is hanged, the rope breaks. Farquhar falls into the water. While underwater, he seems to
take little interest in the fact that his hands, which now have a life of their own, are freeing
themselves and untying the rope from around his neck. Once he finally reaches the surface, he
realizes his senses are superhuman. He can see the individual blades of grass and the colors of
bugs on the leaves of trees, despite the fact that he is whirling around in a river. Realizing that
the men are shooting at him, he escapes and makes it to dry land. He travels through an
uninhabited and seemingly-unending forest, attempting to reach his home 30 miles away. During
His journey through the day and night, he is fatigued, footsore, and famished, urged on by the
thought of his wife and children. He begins experiencing strange physiological events, hearing
unusual noises from the wood, and believes he has fallen asleep while walking. He wakes to see
his perfectly preserved home, with his beautiful and youthful wife outside. As he runs forward to
reach her, he suddenly feels a searing pain in his neck; a white light flashes, and everything goes
black.

It is revealed that Farquhar never escaped at all; he imagined the entire third part of the story.
during the time between falling through the bridge and the noose finally breaking his neck.

The Magic Barrel is a collection of thirteenshort storieswritten byBernard Malamudand

published in 1958 byFarrar, Straus & Giroux. It won the 1959 [Link] Book Award for
Fiction.[1]

The stories included are:

• The First Seven Years

• "The Mourners"

• The Girl of My Dreams

• Angel Levine

• Behold the Key

• Take Pity

• The Prison

• The Lady of the Lake

• A Summer's Reading

• The Bill

• The Last Mohican

• The Loan
 • The Magic Barrel

"The Magic Barrel" starts as the about-to-be rabbi Leo Finkle has been urged by his teachers to
find a wife before he actually becomes a rabbi; he gets a bigger congregation that way, they say.
Because he is quite incapable (he recognizes this later on in the story and presumes his study
stole his social life) and has almost finished his study (and thus has to hurry), he answers an ad of
a marriage counselor. Unhappy and terribly sorry about a meeting with one of the proposed
women, he retreats back again to his study. The marriage counselor suddenly turns up delivering
him photographs of women, which he initially ignores. However, something draws him to them
love with her.
love with that picture and yearns to meet her. After he's found the marriage counselor (who left
him immediately after delivering the photographs) the girl turns out to be the counselor's
daughter (though at first the counselor states it's one of the photographs that should have been in
the barrel; hence Finkle thinks of the barrel as magic). He gets to meet her anyway; the marriage
counselor (her father) hiding around the corner, 'chanting prayers for the dead.'[2]

The short storyAngel Levinewas made into a 1970 film starringHarry BelafonteandZero
Mosteland directed byJohn Kadar.

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat" (1869) is ashort storywritten by renowned author of the
American WestBret HarteThis story is a good example ofregionalismand local
color during theGilded GenerationHis combination of realism and sentimentality
offers readers real and known characters, yet without the dullness that might
sometimes accompany them. Charles A. Fleming, a critic, had this to say about
Harte's work: "As a writer, Harte was a talented humorist who could take fairly
routine story formulas and give them new vigor and settings. His background as a
journalist gave him a brisk style and a special skill for describing people, their
mannerisms, and [Link], although he was born inAlbany, New York,
wrote passionately and in detail about the American West. While he was a
contemporary of Mark Twain, he was often overlooked because of this. His short
The story, 'The Outcasts of Poker Flats' was first published in January 1869 in the
magazine Overland Monthly, and was one of two short stories which brought him
national attention. Plot summary

The story takes place in a Californian community known as Poker Flat, near the town ofThe
DoorThe year is 1850 and Poker Flat is in a downward spiral. The town has lost thousands of
dollars and the virtues of the area seem to be going as well. In an effort to save what is left of the
town and reestablish it as a virtuous place to be, a secret committee is created and it is decided
whom ought to be exiled and whom ought to be killed altogether. On November 23, 1850 our
The story begins as four 'immoral' characters are exiled from Poker Flat. The reader starts the tale.
following the first of these 'immoral' people, a professional gambler by the name of John
Oakhurst. (It is a likely assertion that he is among those sent away because of his great success in
winning much money from those on the secret committee themselves.) On his way out of town
he is joined with 'The Duchess' (a saloon girl), 'Mother Shipton' (a brothel owner), and Uncle
Billy, (the town drunkard and suspected robber). They set out for a less-respectable camp a hard
day's journey away over a mountain range, but despite Oakhurst's protests, the rest of the party
decides to stop for a rest at noon, only halfway to their goal.

While stopped on their rest, the group is met with a pair of runaway lovers on their way to Poker.
Flat to get married. Piney Woods is a fifteen-year-old girl and her lover, Tom Simson.
known as "The Innocent"), is a younger man who has met Oakhurst before. Tom has great
admiration for Oakhurst because on the occasion which they met before, Oakhurst had won a
load of money from Tom. Being a gentleman however, Oakhurst returned the money and pressed
upon Tom that he should never play poker again, as he really was a quite terrible player. Tom
then is thrilled about coming upon Oakhurst on this day, and decides that he and Piney will stop
and stay with the group of travelers for a time. They are unaware however that the group has
Having been exiled and being 'innocent' and 'pure' as they are, they think The Duchess is an actual duchess.
and the such. After the decision is made to stay the night together, Tom leads the group to a half-
butty cabin he discovered and they spend the night there. In the midst of the night, Oakhurst
awakens to find a heavy snow storm raging, and looks about, being the only one up. He soon
discovers however that somebody had been up before him--Uncle Billy had awakened, stolen their
mules and horses, and ditched the party. The group is now forced to wait out the storm with few
provisions that would only last them another ten days at best.

After a week in the cabin, Mother Shipton dies, having secretly and altruistically starved herself.
so that she might save her share of the food for Piney. Oakhurst then advises Simson that he will
have to go for help and make some snowshoes for the man. The gambler tells the others he
will accompany the lad part of the way.

The 'law of Poker Flat' finally arrives at the cabin, only to find the Dutchess and Piney dead.
embracing in a peaceful repose. They both seemed so peaceful and innocent that one could not
tell which was the virgin and which the lady of the evening. This is an important part of the
story, and reminds us that death is really the great equalizer. We next learn that Oakhurst is
found dead beneath a tree, with a Derringer pistol lying at his side and a bullet in his heart,
having committed suicide. There is a 2 of clubs above his head with a note that reads:

BENEATH THIS TREE LIES THE BODY OF JOHN OAKHURST, WHO STRUCK A
STREAK OF BAD LUCK ON THE 23rd OF NOVEMBER, 1850, AND HANDED IN HIS
CHECKS ON THE 7TH DECEMBER, 1850.

It is significant to note that the text reads that what was written on the tree was 'written in pencil.'
in a firm hand. The fact that Oakhurst wrote in a 'firm hand' means that he did not kill himself.
because he was weak, or tired, or hungry. There was something symbolic and morally
meaningful in his death, and we must then investigate the question of what that was. Tom
Simson's fate is not stated and he is never in fact mentioned after leaving the cabin, but he is
presumably the one who tells the 'law of Poker Flat' where to find the cabin where Piney and
the Dutchess were stranded.