Emily Case
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Directions: Type your response to the question below directly onto this worksheet, print it out, and bring it to class with you on Friday. You will write on the bottom part of the worksheet in class and submit the whole for a participation grade. Your response will be scored holistically from 1-10.
Question: At various points in the story, the narrator describes Miss Emily as “a tradition,” “a monument,” and a “duty.” Pick one of these three things and explain how Emily fits that definition (e.g., How is she a “monument”?) Use specific evidence from the text to support a paragraph-length answer of about 200 words. Aim to be clear, coherent, and concise. The best answers will be well supported by textual evidence.
In my belief tradition presents itself by controlling the actions of both the town and Emily herself. The story represents the importance of traditional ties for a rather Southern community. The US Civil War was largely an issue of lifestyle. Southerners hung on to the lifestyle they had civilized, and slaves were an essential part of that. When slavery fell, the South did as well, and soon the lifestyle was torn apart. The economy changed and the old fashioned families lost their position with their income. Carpetbaggers infiltrated the area, and the native Southerners felt dispossessed and invaded. Because they could do so little, they clung to their standards of behavior.
These standards of behavior control Emilys town and Emily herself. So much of the story is foreign to its readers; that the town wouldnt force its way into Emilys home, that Emily allowed herself to be controlled by her father and the townspeople themselves didnt question it. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town”(1.3). But that was traditional behavior. By clinging to tradition, this town is unable to move on. Symbolically, Emily is also unable to move on; thus the dramatic ending when the skeleton of the dead body is found. Tradition can work against the people as well as for them.