“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.”William Faulkner is one of 20th century most gifted novelist and is known to write short stories and plays. William was never a perfect child; he had financial problems and was a drop out. William and his father didn’t have a good relationship; his mother is the one that inspired him into writing stories. She influenced him with her strong independence. William Faulkner is the author of “A Rose for Emily. A Rose for Emily is about a lady who gets away from murder in the south.”Using reader response criticism, the reader can analyze William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily through Character, Anthropology and Secrets/Hidden Meaning?
Character is what proves how people act; it’s traits that form the individual nature of a person or thing. In William Faulkner writing, William explains clearly how Emily loved her father.“She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (Faulkner). Everyone felt sorry for Emily when her father died. He left her with the house, but no money. When he died, Emily refused to admit it for three days. Is Emily crazy or just can’t believe in her father’s death? By losing everything, she turned to be in denial about specific situations. Losing someone isn’t as easy as some people may think. When my mother’s mom passed away this summer, ever since that day, it’s hard for my family to get a good night sleep. Every thought possible goes through my head. Always wondering what my mom is thinking about, never knowing the truth. “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away, and we knew that with nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” Having nothing left, everything you had just left right before your eyes. People think it is holding on that makes you stronger, but sometimes it's letting go. Sometimes days come when dark skies, make you feel all hope has gone, but in time, the sun will shine, to cast your shadow long.
In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner tells us readers about how people have no respect for Negros. “The Negro met the first of the ladies at the front door and let them in, with their hushed, sibilant voices and their quick, curious glances, and then he disappeared “(Faulkner). They didn’t appreciate Negros, because they didn’t use their real names. They should give people chances to prove that there not harmful to society. Everyone can relate this to their lifestyle because everyone gets judged at some point in their life. Weather they call you names, or just make fun of you. “They were admitted by the old Negro into a dim hall way from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow”. Some people say, “Do not judge the book by its cover”; well, I say not to judge at all. People can say anything they want to say, but for me, cover doesn’t matter.
Stated in the short story William Faulkner becomes descriptive with Emily’s gray hair. “When we saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attainted an even pepper-and salt- iron- gray, when it ceased turning” (Faulkner). Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorour iron gray, like the hair of an active man. Everyone goes through some kind of death throughout their families. Nothing you can do to help, sometimes you cannot always get what you want. “When her father died, it got about the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less. Having a house all to yourself, would that make you happy? People were happy for his death.

Using reader response criticism, the reader can analyze William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily through Character, Anthropology and Secrets/Hidden Meaning? People could learn to treat others with kindness and not to judge. People could see how it is to lose someone close to you. That it’s not as easy as people might think .