My Mother is a Fish

When faced with William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," I had high hopes for the story. Faulkner is an author I am all too familiar with; his novel As I Lay Dying is one of my favorite pieces of literature and I will unashamedly sing its praises to anyone who dares to listen. 

I read As I Lay Dying in high school and loved it so much that, instead of creating a PowerPoint presentation like the rest of the class did for their respective novels, I wrote and performed a monologue from the perspective of Vardaman Bundren - complete with my very best Mississippi accent. In hind sight, I should have been humiliated, but my teacher loved it so much that I was obnoxiously proud of myself (and I still am). I don't think my classmates found it as amusing as I did; they were unmistakably dumbfounded as I continuously uttered "my mother is a fish" - quite resolutely. 

That being said, having such glorious memories of Faulkner's writing ultimately set me up for immense disappointment, as I didn't find "A Rose for Emily" to be nearly as entrancing as As I Lay Dying. Most of the story was almost dull, and I missed the glaringly grotesque themes that are characteristic of Southern Gothic literature. Of course, there is an undeniable chill to the narrative as we hear of the strange happenings in the life of our protagonist Emily, but the only real horror we experience is toward the very end. I suppose Faulkner was successful in delivering a dark tale, but the short story was still dissatisfying simply because it was not consistently abhorrent in the way As I Lay Dying was. Admittedly, it is certainly a challenge to write anything as dark as children dragging their mother's corpse across state, but I cannot hide my discontent.

Notably, one of the most delightful aspects of As I Lay Dying is its unique writing style and perspective. It switched between the points of view of each of the family members, and they all had a distinctive voice that reflected their age, dialect, and psychological responses to the horrors they face. "A Rose for Emily" was written in distant third-person point of view, proving to be not nearly as immersive. The writing within As I Lay Dying and "A Rose for Emily" is, in fact, so dissimilar that it would be impossible to identify a shared author. The stylistic nature of the former creates such a unique experience for the reader that it is unfair to compare the two, I know. But I am decidedly not an enthusiast for "A Rose for Emily" in the way I am As I Lay Dying. 

This was taken in Florida... Close enough.