a rose for emily
...s dead, but she keeps his body in her house. Even after the smell of his decaying body becomes so vile nobody can stand it but her, she still refuses to believe he is dead. Only after her cousins convince Emily that her father is dead and there is nothing she can change about it, does she let go. A second helpful clue is the fact that Emily buys Arsenic at a local drug store. Usually Emily has her servant do all her errands for her, but this shows that Emily considers this errand very important and does not want to involve anyone else. Emily states in the drug store the Arsenic will be used to kill a “big rat” but the reader can assume it will be used to kill Homer. This clue combined with the fact that Homer was seen at one point going into Miss Emily’s house and never coming out, may help the reader conclude that Homer is dead. A third and final clue that Faulkner gives the reader occurs when Emily buys Homer a present that usually entails marriage. However Emily knows homer will never Ackland 2 marry her. This once again shows Emily’s tendency to believe what she wants. The reader can predict the outcome when the gift is given to Homer, and one can also predict Miss Emily’s reaction after Homer broke her heart. When this is coupled with the facts that Miss Emily bought rat poison, and Homer was seen going into her house one night, but never leaving, and the fact that she kept her fathers dead body long after he was...