The Significance of Dust and Decay Metaphors In Faulkner Works

Aubrey Binder’s “Uncovering the Past: The Role of Dust Imagery in a Rose For Emily’” explains that the motifs of dust and decay are really crucial and prominent in Faulkner’s story. Binder’s arguments for the motifs are robust, particularly for the motif of dust. Even so, her article supplies really tiny literary evidence for the motif of decay. Even though I agree with Binder’s motif of dust, I don’t agree with her arguments for the motif of decay, and I believe that the motif of pity would greater match the text.

Binder’s motif of dust is heavily supported in the text. She believes that the dust covering the objects and individuals in Emily’s property represents the obscuring of previous events. She tends to make it quite apparent that the dust does not alter or erode the previous, it basically hides it. (Binder five) The dust provides ambiguity which assists to hold the townspeople clueless about what’s actually going on inside Emily’s residence. To support this statement, Binder points out that Homer Barron’s body was covered in an “even coating of the patient and biding dust.” This quote exemplifies how the dust really conceals parts of Emily’s life from the townspeople. When the townspeople identified Homer’s physique, it is like the dust was being brushed away, revealing the truth of the previous. The dust shows how events from the previous are occasionally discovered, so the dust does not make Emily invincible from outside presence. The dust is brushed away and the past is revealed, altering Miss Emily’s life many occasions all through the text. Binder provides an example of this when the government officials come to Miss Emily and inform her that she owes taxes to the town. When the officials enter Miss Emily’s house, they disturb the dust and uncover the fact that Emily does owe taxes to the town. Nonetheless, Emily, disliking adjust, held onto Colonel Sartoris’ involved story that produced her exempt from taxes.

Binder also states that other components that are not actual events in the story also are impacted by the dust. Binder makes use of the example of the continuous influence of Emily’s father even right after his death. “The home filled with dust and shadows…” is a quote from the text that shows how Emily’s father influenced her life. He left her with a very small quantity of money, and no husband due to the fact of his strict standards. Emily’s father created her unavailable to be wed, Binder links the psychological harm that her father inflicted on her to Homer’s murder. Emily murdered Homer so that he could never leave her. This idea was supported by the following quote from the text, “…and we all knew that with practically nothing left, she would have to cling to that which had robbed her, as people will.” Emily clinged onto Homer simply because he was the only thing she had left.

Binder claims that decay is a strong motif in this quick story,nevertheless she hardly even mentions decay in her evaluation. Binder states that, “The reader finds descriptions of decay in the slow degrading of the town, Emily’s inherited house, and even in the aging Emily herself.” Right after she describes how decay could be a motif, she goes on to clarify the motif of dust but never revisits decay. The rest of Binder’s assessment is about how dust impacted “A Rose for Emily.” Binder makes the really widespread literary error of not delivering sufficient proof from the text. She jumps to the conclusion that due to the fact Miss Emily and her house appear to be decaying that decay a major motif of this story. When actually, the decay is far more of a description about the setting and Miss Emily herself rather than a motif.

A achievable motif that is nicely supported by literary evidence is the motif of pity and it in fact plays an important role in this story. Binder touches on the topic of how the townspeople really feel sorry for Emily, but she is does not talk about how really crucial their pity is. The townspeople have been usually slightly pitious to the Grierson’s due to the fact of how extremely they believed themselves to be, when in reality they had been not. The townspeople really pitied Emily soon after her father died. “At last they could pity Miss Emily. Becoming left alone, and a pauper, she had grow to be humanized…” When her father died, she refused to give the physique up the till they threatened to use force. “We did not say she was crazy then. We believed she had to do that.” The townspeople didn’t believe that she was crazy due to the fact they knew that her connection with her father was the only genuine connection she had, so when she lost her father the townspeople felt sorry for her. After her father’s death, the town officials remitted her taxes, but to evade the obvious charity of the act, Colonel Sartoris created a story about how Emily’s father loaned funds to the town and that remitting Emily’s taxes was the town’s way of repaying the loan. Another instance to help the motif of pity is when Emily visits the druggist to buy some arsenic, claiming it was for killing rats. A lot of of the townspeople suspected that Emily was going to use the poison to kill herself, but they believed it would be ‘the best factor.”

Binder’s report, “Uncovering the Past: The Function of Dust Imagery in a ‘Rose For Emily’” is very well thought out and genuinely captures the story, “A Rose for Emily.” Her motif of dust is supported with textual proof and is vital to the story. The dust in Faulkner’s story symbolizes the secrecy of Emily’s life and the unveiling of these secrets. I disagree about her arguments for decay. The element of decay is only a description in the story, however, the motif of pity is well supported by literary evidence and is a essential element to the story.



Binder, Aubrey. “Uncovering The Past: The Part Of Dust Imagery In A ROSE FOR EMILY.” Explicator 70.1 (2012): 5-7. MasterFILE Elite. Internet. 22 Sept. 2016.