When did you realize that the story was going to end the way that it did? How do you respond to the ending?
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About Me
- Todd's 110 Garage
- Born and raised near signs of Lewis and Clark's Missouri River portage, I now live in Auburn, WA and teach at Green River CC and Muckleshoot Tribal College. I have an M.A. in English literature from The University of Montana. I'm married and have no kids.
21 comments:
I realized the story was going to end the way it was when i read the part about her buying rat poison. To me it seemed weird that she wanted poison and after she got it Homer disappeared. I actually liked the way the story ended. However i found it sad and kind of disturbing that the body was in the room. On the other hand i liked the ending because i was not really expecting the body in the bed. I liked the story alot.
I also realized that the story was going to end the way that it did when Emily purchased the arsenic from the druggist, and when the druggist asked her why she needed the arsenic, Emily did not respond. Then, Homer was never seen again. I found the ending to be a little twisted and disgusting because innocent Emily turned out to be a necrophiliac. The ending was a little surprising.
I knew that someone was going to be killed when she bought the arsenic, but I wasn’t sure if it would be Emily, Homer Barron, or someone unnamed that they would conspire to kill. As to relating Homer’s disappearance with the poison, I as well thought she had killed him at that point. However, I also kept the option open that she bought the arsenic for Barron, and then he left to kill someone and did not return so as not to leave a trail. So I only half expected the ending. It became concrete in my mind when they talked about going in to the room upstairs.
The ending was a little macabre; I wasn’t shocked by the events so much as the vivid imagery presented. Perhaps it is a bit too much of a stretch to call her a necrophiliac, all we can conclude from the text is that she did lay in the same bed as the body, either before or after the death, and that she had not been back since, as, “upon him and the pillow beside him lay that even coating of patient and biding dust.” But I agree, sweet little Emily lying in a bed with a man she was planning to poison or had killed already was quite the disturbing image.
Hmm, well to be honest I knew that there had to be something more than the story than the boring, routine, feel-sorry-for-the-rich-orphan with a touch of mingled (yet blatant) racism bilge Faulkner was choosing to adopt. Of course I didn't really expect her to KILL him, I did know that something rather imminent and catalytic might take place... Especially after the mentioning of "the stench." At first I believed that the arsenic was for her own use, as she did seem mentally hollow and depressed; a real asylum-case in the head.
As for a reaction, I believe that it really turned an otherwise boring (as in the act of a blunt object drilling into the skull) tale into an archaic psychological horror story. Bravo Faulkner, bravo. Although...like my fellow students have said already, the image of the woman laying next to the corpse while it rotted slowly and probably crawled with maggots made my skin crawl. It invoked the same throat reaction as hearing the horrible things done to victims of the holocaust, or reading about the survivors of the guillotine in the French Revolution that executors turned loose because their spinal injuries were too revolting and debilitating to let them EVER live normal lives again.
Ok, my apologies, there is substantial textual evidence to make necrophilia a valid hypothesis. I totally missed the part about the body being in a position of "embrace" and the sleep that outlasts love and all that. >.< I wasn't paying close enough attention. I'm sorry Ryan.
Oh and strange thought... roses are a symbol of passion and eternity, could the ending have shown us Emily's rose, her personal symbol of eternal passion? The corpse of Homer? It's out there, I know, but it's just a thought.
I Realized that the story was going to end the way it did, after reading the section where Emily goes to the store to purchase a specific type of poison. However, I am surprised how nobody questioned her or realized what she was up to after the scene she cause when the boy would not give her arsenic. All in all I thought the ending was fairly good because it kept me on my toes throughout the whole story and the body that was found in the house was just a big shocker! I didn't really think she would kill them man and just leave the body there to rot.
I realized that they story would end that way when Emily bought the jewelry for Homer. Along with the outfit, it struck me as somewhat odd. The words "silver" and "set" were clues that connotate death. Besides, Miss Emily was a suspicious character anyway, so it wasn't a stretch to suspect her of anything. I thought the ending was clever, but I wasn't shocked. I was more disturbed than anything, but overall I did like this story.
I realized that the story would end the way that it did when I read the part about Miss Emily buying the poison and then combining that part with the information that Homer himself said that he liked men as well as the fact that Miss Emily bought the men's clothes and the toilet set and only rumors of them getting married. All of these facts combined suggests that she has something that she is planning and it didn't seem likely that it would end well for Homer.
I did not like this story. I've read it in a class previous to this one and for me, Emily is a creepy woman. She does things that boggle my mind. She's rude, onry, and by killing Homer she just disgusts me. The fact that she is old is no excuse to be rude and onry either, that just means that she has had longer to practice good manners. I do not like how William Faulkner wrote the story out of order.
I realized the story would end the way that it did when Emily bought the rat posion at the drug store. It seemed strange that after she bought arsenic her boyfriend disappeared and she never left the house something wasn't right. Thought the ending of the story some what suprised me I knew that she had to have killed Homer but I didn't think that she would actually keep him in the house with her after she killed him
I realized the story would end like it did in the last paragraph of the second section. "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." And then being introduced to Homer’s character was the nail in the coffin. In regards to the story I think it comes from the idea that in some traditions a rose was placed on the door of a room where a secret was thus we have a Rose for Emily. It's still a shock to come to the end and discover that she has been laying by his body, “clinging to that which has robbed her.”
I just realized that I responded to the entire story and not jus the ending. I will say the same thing about the ending though. I find it disturbing and disgusting that there was the indentation and a long iron gray strand of hair on the pillow next to the rotting corpse. I must disagree with the description that was used for Emily in some of my classmates comments, Emily is not innocent in any way. I very much agree with Johnny in the way that it made my skin crawl to imagine this old lady sleeping with a corpse, even if they were just cuddling.
Ahhhh where do I start on my thoughts of this story... Honestly I didnt see Homer dead in a night shirt coming. I figured that he would slip out the window at the first chance he got. I also figured that the poison was for Emily and that she would leave the house to Homer, the only man she loved.
But when Homer disappeared that when it hit me that Emily poisoned him. Its just like movie "Psycho", where Vince Vaughn was a demented person that killed his mother because she found out that he had a female lover. He couldn't grasp the reality of what he had done and never disposed of the body, just like Emily did. But in that movie he took it to the next level and developed a skitso of his mother... it was funny to see him argue with himself
So for me it wasn't a huge suprise, it's been done.
I wasn't sure where the story was going or what was going to happen. I read the story and let it unfold as I read. I think that the ending was very gross. How could someone live in the same house with a dead body, let alone sleep in the same bed?
I didn't realize Homer would end up dead as soon as Emily bought the poison, it took me a little longer then that. :) For me it was when the narator mentioned that Homer had "left" but no one really saw him leave. That's when I was able to put it all together.
I thought the ending was a little shocking, but mostly I was disgusted, as well as a bit skeptical. I really doubt she could live, let alone sleep, next to a dead body for that long. I would think that a rotting body would absolutly distroy the bed, and most likely make her very, very ill.
The story was going to end in the beginning of section III. She was sick for a long time. You would think that the townspeople would simply consider her some sort of recluse. How did they find out she was sick? Because she cut her hair? This bland hint missed my thoughts until I read it over again. Sick from what? "...a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows-sort of tragic and serene"(p. 208). I guess it's just my opinion that if I thought someone was sick, I wouldn't think of them as 'serene'.
Although the sequencing of events in the story confuses me a bit, the story is still predictable, that Emily would die. What I didn't expect was for Homer to be killed with the poison. I figured Emily would keep Homer locked up, even though he was gay, in some closet(pardon the pun). However, I wouldn't expect her to kill him. While we see evidence of Emily becoming rapidly mad, I don't believe that the story pitched enough details to make the murder evident; its something that you kind of have to come to a conclusion to.
I DIDN'T realize the story was going to end the way it did. Yes, there were several hints such as the purchase of the poison, the disappearance of homer and the odd smell accumilating around the house. But no matter what is being foreshadowed I never jump to conclusions when reading a story. This made the ending a much sweeter, anticipated ending. The ending was, in a word, gross. Gross and shocking, which I believe was the whole intention of the author. It gave a good bit of action and shock to a story that was more description than action.
Was the smell symbolic?
I did not realize the way it ends until the very last of the story. I did get a sense of someone's going to be killed, but leaving Homer's corpse in bed with herself is truly shocking and lurid.
I really like the ending. It's intense. The ending really contrasts with the overall story. The tone is placid until the resolution which is utterly shocking.
I really didn't have much thought to the ending, until i read the whole story. I thought that she was either going to poison herself, Homer, or kill him first then poison herself right after. To have the mentality to think that if she couldn't be with him than nobody else can.
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