How do the character and background of Emily Grierson differ from thoseof Homer Barron? What general observations about the society that Faulkner depicts can be made from his portraits of these two characters and from his account of life in this one Mississippi town?
What will be an ideal response?
Both the character and background of Emily Grierson from Homer Barron could not be more different. She is an “old maid” at age thirty, Southern, aristocratic, never having worked a day in her life. He is a Northern day-laborer, crass, crude, and experienced—a man not interested in marriage or settling down. Grieving after her father’s death, Emily has isolated herself from the town, seeing no one except her Negro servant. She is thin and pale white, with a face “tragic and serene” (par. 29). When the townspeople decide to pave their sidewalks, Homer Barron comes to town as the foreman with the construction crew. The narrator describes him as a “big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (par. 30). Laughter follows him wherever he goes, and he soon knows everyone in town and carouses with younger men at the Elks Club.
That the Grierson house was “set on what had once been our most select street” (par. 2) and that “people in our town [. . .] believed that the Griersons held themselves a little too high for what they really were” (par. 25) only heightens Emily’s transformation after taking Homer as her lover. Emily’s scandalous behavior surprises the townspeople as they witness a rare occurrence: Emily laughing with a man whom she clearly likes. She rides with Homer on Sunday afternoons “in the glittering buggy, Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth”—images that all suggest her “fallen” state (par. 33). Some have read the story as an allegory: Homer Barron is the crude, commercial North who invades, like a carpetbagger. Emily, with her faithful ex-slave, is the Old South, willing to be violated. In an interview with students at the University of Virginia, Faulkner played down such North-South symbolism. “I don’t say that’s not valid and not there,” he said, “but . . . [I was] simply writing about people.” (The whole interview in which Faulkner discusses this story, not very helpfully, can be found in Faulkner in the University, Frederick Gwynn and Joseph Blotner, eds., UP of Virginia, 1959.) Still, it is clear that Emily, representing an antebellum first family, receives both Faulkner’s admiration and his criticism for resisting change. “The theme of the story,” according to C. W. M. Johnson, “can be stated: ‘If one resists change, he must love and live with death,’ and in this theme it is difficult not to see an implied criticism of the South” (Explicator VI [No. 7] May 1948: item 45). But Faulkner’s criticism, Ray B. West, Jr., feels, is leveled at the North as well. West makes much of the passage in which Faulkner discerns two possible views of Time (55). If, for the South, Time is “a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches,” then for the North it is a mere “mathematical progression” and “a diminishing road.” West would propose, for a statement of the story’s theme: “One must neither resist nor wholly accept change, for to do either is to live as though one were never to die; that is, to live with Death without knowing it”
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Exhorted by their leader, some 900 members of the Reverend Jim Jones' People's Temple picked up paper cups and drank purple Kool-Aid laced with the deadly poison cyanide. Psychologically, the mass suicide at Jonestown in 1978 is not so incredible as it might seem. The inhabitants of Jonestown were isolated in the jungles of Guyana, intimidated by guards, and lulled with sedatives. They were also
cut off from friends and relatives and totally accustomed to obeying rigid rules of conduct, which primed them for Jones' final "loyalty test." Of greater psychological interest is the question of how people reach such a state of commitment and dependency. Why do people join groups such as the People's Temple? The People's Temple was a classic example of a cult. A cult is a group in which the leader's personality is more important than the beliefs she or he preaches. Cult members give their allegiances to this person, who is regarded as infallible, and they follow his or her dictates without question. Almost always, cult members are victimized by their leaders in some way or another. Psychologist Margaret Singer has studied and aided hundreds of former cult members. Her interviews reveal that in recruiting new members, cults use a powerful blend of guilt, manipulation, isolation, deception, fear, and escalating commitment. In this respect, cults employ high-pressure indoctrination techniques not unlike those used in brainwashing. In the United States alone, an estimated 2 to 5 million people have succumbed to the lure of cults. The People's Temple members were killed by a. germs. b. poison. c. accident. d. guns.
Qu’est-ce qu’elle n’a pas comme meuble?
a. une armoire b. un bureau c. un canapé
Who practices the best active reading strategies?
a. Rhea skims the reading and highlights the first sentence of every paragraph. She takes notes over the reading during class discussions. Usually she can understand what she reads without looking up the few words she doesn't know. b. Austin likes to read the assignment right before class, so it will be fresh in his mind. He can usually find the thesis in the introduction and underlines it. If there's time, he'll look up words he doesn't know. c. Leslie skims the reading first and then reads it more carefully a second time, highlighting the sentences that are major supports of the thesis. She looks up words she doesn't know and marks passages that are unclear, so she can ask about them in class. d. Geoff reads the assignment once, but he takes his time and highlights what he thinks are important points. He knows the instructor will talk about the thesis and audience in class, so he'll add that to his notes later. He circles words he doesn't know to look up when he has time.
Which of the following is an example of a thesis with points?
a) There are many important qualities in a good husband. b) There are many important qualities in a good husband, but these are the ones that I find most important. c) The most important qualities of a good husband are honesty, affection, and tolerance. d) My husband has the three qualities I find most important in a husband.