CES1353 A SURVEY OF PROSE FORMS AND POETRY IN ENGLISH
Source:Past year questions of JULY 2012 SEMESTER B.ED. (HONS) TESL UNISEL
Click here to read the short story
1.The point of view in "A Rose for Emily" is unique. The story is told by an unnamed narrator in the first-person collective. Who might this narrator be? Justify your answer with evidence from the story.
The point of view is that of the town's people itself, told from an unnamed narrator’s perspective but sharing the town’s feelings.The use of “we believed” and “people hardly saw her at all” demonstrates this collective consciousness. The town puts its information together, and the town's people is the narrator.
2.What could Miss Emily's house represent? Provide evidence from the text.
Emily lived in what was once an elegant house, “decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies,” the narrator says, and “set on what had once been our most select street.” But Emily made no attempt to improve or modernize it. It show that she loves living in the past including her ideology.
3. Despite the story's confusing sequence, many events are foreshadowed.
a. Give 2 examples of foreshadowed events as found in the event.
She bought the arsenic that label for poisoning rats and she bought complete clothing for a man.
b. How does foreshadowing enrich the story?
Foreshadowing give the element of mystery and suspenses.For example The "smell" that develops is certainly an example of foreshadowing, though it turns out to be the rotting body of Homer and not just a dead rat. Emily's descent into mental instability is foreshadowed by the knowledge that it ran in her family--that her great aunt had gone "crazy at last."
4. What do you infer to be the author's attitude toward Emily Grierson? Discuss and provide evidence from the story to support your answer.
I think the narrator treats her as an eccentric old woman who might have a few skeletons in her closet (or upstairs bedroom). He doesn't moralize about her or her ways. In fact, he is telling us more about the townspeople who, although not abusive to her, were neglectful in letting her become such a hermit and isolate herself from them.
5. State and discuss one (1) theme of the short story.
The theme is society's dynamic. It is about how judgement can affect and influence people or the impact of society's prejudice. The town's people although not abusive to her, were neglectful in letting her become such a hermit and isolate herself from them. They let her do whatever she wants not because they really respect her or being polite to her. It is just they don't want to be responsible to what would happen to her. So they just ignore her and they hope their ignorance will give a message to her that they don't like her.
