Similarities in A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner and Girl by Jamaica Kincaid - Essay Example

"A Rose for Emily" and "Girl" William Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" Jamaica Kincaid "Girl" Subject: A Rose for Emily Subject: Girl Character: Emily Grierson Character: Mother Setting time period: 1930 Setting time period: 1983 Writing style: Symbolism Writing Style: Diction Language: English Language: English The stories “Girl” and “a Rose for Emily” share a similar theme of resistance to change and generation gap. In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, her father made her personality change from being a happy and a vibrant person in her youth stage. Her father could not accept her suitors who were potential for her. He always rejected them for no genuine and concrete reason. Emily could not, however, go against her father. This made her life miserable later after her father’s death. The fact that he made decisions on her life made her lead a stressful life. Emily had a hard time to cope with the decisions made by her father all through. Throughout her life with her father, Emily stayed indoors. She never got a chance to discuss with her father the reasons behind his decisions to reject her suitors. Therefore, it is arguable that her father was wrong since he did not let her know what kind of a man he expected as her right suitor. After her father’s death, only her black servant had been to the house. Her father’s death took a long time to fade in her memory. She could not accept that he was gone for about two years. She thought the best companion for her was her father because he did not expose her to socialize with other people. The impact for the gap between her father’s decisions and hers caused a very different type of a person who did not have a passion for men. Her father’s death made her a crazy person because she could not make a decision on her won. People in her society could not explain what Emily was going through. They always misjudged her negatively, and none of their thoughts was correct. Not so long, after the death of her father, Emily started dating a newcomer who came for a building project, the people in her town could not accept the affair and instead they brought her cousins to stop the affair (Shmoop 5). At one time, she bought some arsenic drugs and people thought that she wanted to take her life away maybe her new lover gave her the shaft. Another time she bought some items for men and the society thought that she was marrying the newcomer called Homer. When Homer left the town, Emily’s cousins left too but later on Homer came back. The last time people saw him, he entered Emily’s house. Emily did not leave home at all at all after her lover entered the house. She poisoned Homer to death just because he wanted to quit the affair. However, she kept the corpse in her house for forty years. This story shows how complex and complicated Emily’s life was, and her seclusion because she could not adapt to changes in the world after her father’s death (Shmoop 11). Emily’s father eroded the chances she had to get married while still young because he resisted suitors who came to propose to her. In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, the mother dictates to the daughter what she’s required to do and what not to do for her to be a good woman in future. The mother believes that if the girl does not act her words, she will become a slut. Conflict arises between the girl and the mother though the mothers aim is to make the girl a proper woman in future. The mother tells the girl that she is supposed to wash clothes on different days. However, the girl is in a different generation, and she is not likely to follow her mother’s advice. In this case, the mother is trying to rule the life of her daughter using her own ideas of what she thinks about the type of a woman her daughter is supposed to do. The mother tactfully uses scares to her daughter that if she does not follow the advice, she will end up being a slut. However, in the real sense, that is not likely to happen (Bouson 52). The theme of resistance to change comes out clearly, because the mother is not ready to adjust to , changes in making of a proper woman. She does not understand that her daughter and she do not share a common generation and time has really gone. The mother is not ready to understand the girl in case she adapts some changes that are in her daughter’s generation, which has different ways of making a proper woman. Conflict between the mother’s advice and the daughters generation arises because, the daughter may not be in a position to follow the advice given to her. The mother’s advice may not be helpful to ensure that the daughter will grow to become a good type of woman (Bouson 53). This may lead to confusing her daughter and finally she is likely to find herself in a pool of confusion because her behavior my end up being very different from that of her age mates. As a result, she is likely to live her own kind of life not understood by other people. In the two stories, the parents are a source of confusion to their daughters. However, in the story, “Girl” the effects of the resistance of change by the parent has not yet affected the daughter but she is already confused of what to do and what not to do. In the “A Rose for Emily”, Emily is already old and the resistance of her father to change, caused her confusion in life and this made her loose her chances of getting married. Just as Emily and the girl in the “Girl” short story, I experienced confusion of what am supposed to do in order to feel fit in the society (Bouson 200). In these two short stories, they are relevant in that parents have to understand that as time moves on, several changes occur in doing of things, and they need to adjust to the most current way of living in order to understand their children’s life is not likely to be the same as theirs. When we resist changing, we may end up making the life of the children miserable and difficult. This can result to stress and confusion in their life. However, whenever one is confused, one is likely to live a life full of tragedies. Therefore, it is of great importance that parents give their children a chance to make their own decisions, which may affect their own future. When parents make decisions for their children without giving them a concrete reason, this may affect the children in the future because they will be in a confused state of what is required to fit in the then society. It is vital to give children some freedom for them to live an independent life such that even when the parents die, the children will be able to make their own decisions concerning key issues like who to marry them, what to do and what not to do (Bouson 51). The relationship between father and daughter may cause the daughter a very difficult life. Most of the single parents who are fathers do not accept the suitors for their daughters. They reject for no important reason. In future, this affects the girl’s life especially when the father is no longer there. By then, the girls are normally past the marriage stage and they become desperate because they can no longer find a suitable suitor for them. Though the fathers do so to protect and prevent their daughters from men who are not worth, they forget that they can never marry their daughters. The girls end up confused of who is worth for them and who is the right person for them to marry. The stories emphasize the effects of resistance of change between parents and children. In the same case, when I was a teenager, my dad would not let me choose my friends as I wished. He always dictated my choice of friends in my life. However, he did not tell me the reason as to why I should not be friend to some other teenagers. Therefore, at the end of it all, I could not find the meaning of having friends. This made me a confused person because I did not know the qualities of a good friend and why one would not qualify to be a worth friend (Shmoop 9). My father would beat me up whenever he learnt that I was with those teenagers he did not like as my friends. To avoid now and then punishments, I decided to live my own life. I did not care what people said so long as I was in good terms with my father. However, life went on, no one visited my home, and I did not visit friends because I ended up not having friends. I did not know the best way to live with different types of people. My social ground was poor and hard to understand. Life became complicated too. In school, all I did was attend classes and mind my own businesses. I became a very quiet and secretive person. I could not share my problems with anyone. I did my own things as usual and did not involve other people. Whenever I felt stressed, I just kept quiet and did not share my problems with anyone apart from my dad. When my dad passed away, I felt that the world did not have a place for me. I became more and more self-dependant. A time I thought suicide was the better option. People would not accept my personality. I resisted all the changes surrounding me and lived a life that no one understood. In conclusion, the two short stories emphasize on the theme of resistance of change and how dangerous it is when two generations are involved. One of the story analyses the effects of the resistance while the other one shows how resistances arises. In the “Girl” story, in case the girl becomes a modern type of a woman, more conflicts will arise between her and the mother but the fact remains that the girl will adjust to changes in her generation. If the mother will not change to fit and understand the girl’s state, there will be more conflicts between the mother and the daughter, which is not very important. The mother should understand the daughter and teach her how to become a presentable woman without dictating. Work cited Bouson, brooks J. Jamaica Kincaid: Writing Memory, Writing Back to the Mother. New York: SUNY Press, 2006. Shmoop. A Rose for Emily: Shmoop Literature Guide. Sunnyvale,CA: Shmoop University Inc, 2010. Print. Read More