A comparison of William Faulkners "A Rose For Emily" and Louise Erdrich's "Red Convertible".

GCSE English

A COMPARISON OF

WILLIAM FAULKNER’S

“A ROSE FOR EMILY”

LOUISE ERDRICH’S

“RED CONVERTIBLE”

Miranda Melvin-Self

For

English Comp II

Dr. David Sidore

11 September 00

Every author has the difficult task of trying to bridge an invisible gap between the characters they are creating in their stories, and the audience the author is writing for. In reading William Faulkners “A Rose For Emily” and Louise Erdrichs “Red Convertible,” I felt an undeniable connection with the protagonist in each story which I feel is due to my perceived point of the stories. More specifically, I felt that each story was filled with morals and ideals each of us as humans may possess or at least have felt at one time or another in our lives. Each story shows that we all have our breaking points, which lead me to question my own.

In “A Rose For Emily,” we are introduced to Miss Emily Grierson. She is a woman who embodies the term ‘strong-willed’ or ‘thick-headed.’ She is controlled by a father who is equally as strong of the mind, and is forced by him, in life and in death, to lead a life of isolation and confinement. While her father is alive, the reason for confinement is simple. Although Miss Emily has many suitors, no one is good enough in her father’s eyes for the fact that he would rather keep her for his own use instead. The result of such actions by her father is a life of isolation from friends, normalcy, and the one thing she truly wants to experience: love, marriage, and happiness. We see her fathers over-protection through the eyes of the narrator who states that “…Miss Emily, a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip…” (207) In relating my own experiences to Miss Emily, I was also held under an iron-clad fist of a father throughout my childhood. My desires were strangely parallel to those of Miss Emily’s because of my fathers desires to make me perfect in his eyes, which held me back from growing into a woman of my own mind. Instead, it made me want to conform to his ideals of perfection. And when her father dies, Miss Emily could not let go of the father who would not let go of her. She tells the townspeople that her father is not dead, keeping his body in her house which is made understood by Faulkner in the passage “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.” (207) To this day, I struggle with the notion of fitting my father’s mold…being the perfect woman. And as much hatred as I have for his harshness and warped devotion towards my development, my ultimate goal is still to be the best that I can in my fathers eyes, instead of in my own as it should be. She then resorts to a life of solitude and is not seen again until she meets a man that is new to the community. She strolls through town with the new man with her head up high, and full of pride “…as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson.” (208) She had found love at last! Despite her fathers’ attempts to destroy her life and keep her from anything a normal woman feels and experiences. But, her desire for love and companionship through the years had become warped in Miss Emily’s mind. As had my own. I had come to believe that as a woman, my mission in life would be to not only fulfill my fathers ideals of a perfect daughter, but to also fulfill every mans dream of a ‘perfect woman.’ I had not only lost myself in this process, but I became a woman that no man could ever want. What man would want a woman who had no mind of her own? Unfortunately, I did not realize this. The man in Miss Emily’s situation turns out to be like all men, changing his mind and turning his back on the newfound love between the two, and instead of letting him go, Miss Emily murders him. Her burning desire to feel, to taste, to experience true love has blinded her and has turned a god-fearing woman into a woman who has committed the ultimate sin, to savor the ultimate experience of everlasting love.

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Louise Erdrich also made me feel a connection with the protagonist, Lyman, who we discover wants nothing more than to regain the love and persona of a brother that once was before being drafted to war. Lyman and Henry seem to have the perfect sibling relationship. Although they differ in many ways, they enjoy the company of one another immensely, and experience many of life’s greatest pleasures together. From buying their first car together, a red convertible, to travelling and exploring the vast, open country side by side. Being a sibling myself, I was able to connect to Lymans dreamy descriptions of his experiences with his older brother, Henry. I experienced a feeling of nostalgia in reading these passages, specifically when Erdrich writes “Some people hang on to details when they travel, but we didn’t let them bother us and just lived our everyday lives here to there.” (197) It is obvious to me that Lyman has great admiration for his older brother. Never once does he use the words love in reference to Henry, nor does he ever state in spoken words how much he adores his brother….it is simply something that is felt through his words, like a secret, an untold story between Lyman and me. I can relate to these feelings of adoration for an older sibling because I hold the same for mine as well. Rarely do I speak the words, but anyone can see the connection when we are in each other’s presence. And then the rain came. The days that were once filled with sunshine and joy were no longer to be. Henry was sent off to war, and when he returned he was no longer of his usual self. The war had changed him…broken him down, perhaps, as it did for many men, and Lyman could not bear the change he saw in his brother. “He’d always had a joke, then, too, and now you couldn’t get him to laugh, or when he did it was more the sound of a man choking, a sound that stopped up the throats of other people around him.” (199) If you’ve ever had a loved one fight in a war, this passage written by Erdrich touches you in a place that you’d rather be left forgotten. The sister that I had shared so much with had also been called to war, and when she returned, our special bond had also changed, not broken, but not the same. I missed the memories that filled my head with joyous times that I longed to feel again, as they did with Lyman. What could I do to get through to her? I understood the trauma of her involuntary travels, but what I wanted was of more importance. Lyman had felt the same, and he thought up a great plan to get the old Henry back. He thought back to that old red convertible, and the joy he felt sharing it with his brother. He knew how much Henry loved that car also, so he took himself a hammer and “…I went out to that car and I did a number on its underside. Whacked it up. Bent the tailpipe double. Ripped the muffler loose.” “…. Then I sat back and waited for Henry to find it.” (200) I believe that it is a part of the human mind to resort to drastic measures when you feel like you are losing something so valuable and important to you. Most everyone can relate to Lyman’s actions in one form or another. Who has not gone down ‘without a fight?’ Without ‘kicking and screaming?’ It is a part of the American perception to stand up and fight for what you believe in, which is what Lyman did, and it worked. Although, not instantaneously, Henry did take notice. The aura of sadness which once surrounded him, consumed him, had been lifted. His thoughts became more clear and focused, on the red convertible, of course. To fix it back to the condition as it used to be. “It was easier for him to do the things the rest of us did.” (201) And so when the car was in working condition again, Henry and Lyman took it for a spin, ending up at a river where Henry came to his unfortunate death. He drowned in the river that day. Lyman walks back to the car, and turns on the high beams, and drives it up the bank. “I put it in first gear and then I take my foot off the clutch.” “…. And watch it plow softly into the water.” (203) Lyman reverts back to the one thing that he knows will bring his brother back…the red convertible.

And now I am at the point where I question my own beliefs, my own values, and all the things that I treasure most in my life, and I wonder. I wonder where my breaking point is. Mine has certainly not been tested to the point that Lyman’s had, but I felt for Lyman the same. I cannot tell myself that I would not do the same, to bring back or to hold onto someone that was so dear to me. Louise Erdrich touched a part of me that I never realized was there. How often do we think about our breaking points until it is in retrospect? And William Faulkner’s story is equally the same, comparable to that of Erdrichs story. If I was to lead a life of isolation and confinement, would I think in rational terms if the only love that I were to ever experience was about to walk out of my life? These questions rang in my head over and over again as I read each story. They remain in my mind, sort of hauntingly, but they are welcomed thoughts….I think, and they would not be there if it were not for the moralistic writings of William Faulkner and Louise Erdrich.