Through the Postcolonial Lens: “A Rose For Emily”
Colonization is not a glorious word, once there is colonization there must have a culture shock which would result in tragedy sooner or later. The background of “A Rose for Emily” is basically after the outbreak of the American Civil War, the traditional culture of the south and the values of north experienced great impact and transformation. The core of the American Civil War is the tyranny of the majority against the minority that is equivalent as colonization, and the tremendous influence in the story is what colonization could lead to, the culture shock, which would become the tragedy eventually. For this story, the postcolonial lens is the most suitable one to describe how colonization affects the colonized and how the tragedy is formed. Data collecting from research propose, “The ambiguous term colonialism may refer either to a system of government or to an ideology or worldview underlying that system—in general postcolonialism represents an ideological response to the colonialist thought, rather than simply describing a system that comes after colonialism” (Wikipedia). The logic here, simply put, is the political, economic, cultural, and psychological impact that the former sovereign state has on the former colonial people and the people of the old colonial countries in the context of the post-colonial era.
In “A Rose for Emily”, Emily was the daughter of the aristocracy during the southern plantation boom, while the death of her father seemed to be accompanied by the decline of the southern plantation economy and the aristocracy of the south. Emily’s whole life was a tragedy, she suffered the abandonment of love and became a victim of the old times, as well as her grief and sympathy for the decline of the old traditions of the southern aristocracy. Edward Said has put forward the “image of geography and history” (such as colonial explorers and novelists story) to the spirit of “by the nearby and distant regions of the differences between the sense of their own”, and “it has become a colonial people to confirm their identity and their mad existence”, which eventually lead to the tragedy of the colonized (Said). One of the causes of the tragedy is the culture shock between northern and southern, and the other is the stubborn attitude of Southerners towards the old culture. Because of the cultural differences of the old and new, the people who have experienced this during the colonization will be affected and have a sad love story. After the death of her father, Emily, who is the last heir to Gleason, thought she might break through the bondage. She cuts off her long hair and starts a new life with the normal desire of a young woman to get love, a husband, and family. However, the people in the town never regard her as an ordinary person. In their view, Emily should always be a traditional incarnation. Since the powerful Gleason family at that time represented the wonderful manor system in the old town and placed the southerners' nostalgia for the glorious past. Emily's noble manners should be elegance, nobleness, and chastity of the southern ladies.
Therefore, people in the town are obliged to pay attention to her lady style and set up a monument for the south. When Barron, a tall and dark-skinned man, comes to the town and walks into Emily's emotional world, the emotions that have been suppressed for too long are like volcanic eruptions, she loved unrestrainedly. The Miss in the Gleason family actually falls in love with the “Northern Donkey”, a man who lived with a daily salary. This incident has gone beyond the scope of personal affection for the people in the town and has greatly violated the norms of behavior reached by the southerners in dealing with the northerners. The people in the town used the old traditions of the south, and the old moral values as the sole criterion for Emily's words and deeds; thus, invisibly using the powerful pressure of public opinion to create the strongest spiritual shackle for Emily. When Emily turns a deaf ear to the rumors, the townspeople finally couldn’t stop and begin to attack and slander them in words. They publicly appear and block them, forcing the priests of the church to come to the door and write letters to Emily’s stubborn and conservative cousins to ask them to save her. It was not until the disappearance of Barron that the townspeople calmed down and lived the same days as in the past.
Consequently, one of the tragedies that will appear caused by cultural shock and cultural stubbornness is about love. Colonization could result in culture shock, which would lead to the catastrophic ending. “A Rose for Emily” begins with Emily’s death, “ WHEN MISS Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old man-servant--a combined gardener and cook--had seen in at least ten years” (Faulkner, p1). As Emily, the representative of the south, her death symbolizes the complete demise and disappearance of the ancient traditions, values, and lifestyles of the south. In addition, it is clear to know that Emily is connected to “a fallen monument”, which lays the background for the following death. Although Emily and Barron had a spark of love, and Emily did love Barron, but in the traditional southern aristocracy, she is still deeply disgusted and contradicted the northern culture in her heart, so when Barron showing that he likes to associate with men and does not intend to get married, Emily chose to murder him to keep her lover. The conflict between the traditional civilization of the south and the modern civilization of the north is obvious, which also indicates the short and tragic ending of Emily and Barron. The people who have lived through colonization will eventually lead to a tragic life due to the recession of their own culture. To show the contradiction between the old and the new and the aristocratic class represented by Emily, though the general trend has gone but refused to accept the mentality of social change, the author selected a typical tax event as an example. After the death of Emily's father, the mayor, Colonel Sartoris, made up her father loan money for the town, so that he could avoid receiving Emily's tax and not hurt her self-esteem.
However, the time has passed and the new generation of town officials have a lot of words about Colonel Sartoris' decision. They mailed Emily the tax bill and wrote letters to inform her about the tax payment, but Emily refused to answer the matter. The town’s government authorities sent a delegation to Emily’s residence to discuss tax matter with her. Nevertheless, Emily refused to admit that she was in arrears of taxes and ordered the servant Tobe to let the delegation out of her residence. In this conflict, the author explained the mentality of Emily's observing the old order and resisting new things in the form of dialogue. This is actually comparing the two generations to reflect the sympathy and thoughtfulness of the older generation, while the new generation has lost the fine traditions of the older and some good traditional values, and between people. Relationships have now become a “money relationship”. The black servant Tobe, who is working for Emily in the house, only used by a few sentences to describe him in the novel, but he is extremely important in terms of the theme. In fact, the slavery of the south was already abolished at that time, while Emily continued to use the slaves, which reflected her refusal to give up the superiority of the past. Since Emily died, "He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again" (Faulkner, p1). The author did not explain the whereabouts of Tobe. His disappearance has a strong symbolic meaning that the old forces have gone, and the black slaves have ceased to exist with the complete disappearance of the aristocratic class.
As a consequence, when a race or a class begins to decay, the culture or people of it would be influenced badly. This novel not only profoundly expresses the contradiction between the decline of the family, but also strongly shows the ideological gap between the north and the south. Emily vividly reproduces the contradictory and painful emotional experiences of the oppressed women in the social environment during the time and their tragic fate. On one hand, women in the south are regarded as the embodiment of all virtues, family honors, social prestige of humility and chastity. On the other hand, women are a disaster and a source of sins. The southern society is actually a man-centered society. Southern women have no identity, no self, and no rights. They can only be men's wives, lovers, and servants. Although men protect women and are polite to them, women actually do not receive real respect. In "A Rose for Emily", there is such a sentence that fully reflects this, which is "None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such" (Faulkner, p3). Not only do southern women have no place in society but in their hearts, they are always under the control of a traditional ethics. Social norms and male centers have forced southern women to fall into the predicament of incomparable pain forever. Nor they cannot surpass themselves or transcend tradition. On the contrary, the new ideas that the north brings are more equal and free, which has formed a huge cultural impact with the ideas of the south and indirectly lead to the tragedy of Emily’s life. Accordingly, the difference of ideology could give rise to calamity.
Ultimately, “A Rose for Emily,” tells the story of Emily and the tragic fate, and also the decline of the class she represents, through the postcolonial lens. In order to reinforce the theme, which is colonization could cause culture shock and the recession of a class that will finally become a tragedy, several main topics are provided. Two of these are that since the difference of culture, people will have conflicts with their lover and have a tragic ending. The third one is colonization would lead a tragic life due to the recession of people’s culture. Last but not least, is that the difference of theory between two places could result in calamity. Therefore, when colonization occurs, there will be political and cultural contradictions between two places, and the final result of this is the occurrence of tragedy.
