A Rose for Emily书评.docVIP

Book Review of A Rose for Emily --The Conflicts between Old and New A Rose for Emily is a masterpiece written by William Faulkner with sort of Gothic style. This short story is too abundant to penetrate completely. Therefore, I would like choose a perspective—the conflicts between old and new to discuss about. Change is a natural rule as same as life and death. While, at the beginning of the new thing emerging, the old generation always defenses the ancient tradition with total efforts. In this short story, Emily is a symbol of old traditions of South. She sticks to her family honor and turns down everything fresh. We can see that from these typical conflicts I select below. The first conflict—tax affair was appeared in para.5. At the first sentence “when the next generation, with its more modern ideas… this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction.” The new generation can’t permit Emily to be free from taxes. They invoked the challenge, “they mailed her a tax”, while the old fought back—“and there was no reply”. In the fires round, the new generation got a disappointment. Then in para.6, the second round started. The government set up a special meeting to save their first failure. Finally, they decided to dispatch a deputation to persuade Emily face to face. “Knocked at the door through which no visitors had passed since eight or ten years earlier” illuminates that the hostess of this house eludes the historic revolution. It was the old Negro not Emily herself who handled their reception. Next, the description of Emily’s house makes people feel creep. “It smelled of dust and disuse” “It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture” “the leather was cracked” etc. Especially, a profound “stood” in the last sentence when picturing the crayon portrait of Emily’s father illustrates that the old thoughts were still alive. Para.7 has the first appearance of Emily. “They rose when she entered.” They “rose” may be out of their respect to the old cultural Emily s