A Rose for Emily 8

In American society, it has become a second nature for people to put others on a pedestal, thus allowing a harsher criticism of their actions. This practice provides members of society with less time to evaluate their own faults. The townspeople in William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily separated Emily Grierson from themselves on the basis of family status. Throughout the story they continuously place her actions as being on a higher level than …

…in a place of superiority. In our society today, we continue to play this same game with celebrities. It is a one sided, voyeuristic approach to understanding another person. They do not understand Emily as a real person, nor do they care. A lack of interaction caused by their detachment of her from society prevents her from being considered as human. They use her instead as an escape from the evaluation of their own shortcomings.