Questions Week 2

Week 2, Question 2
The only place I saw the word “rose” at all in the story was on page 669 when it said, “They rose when she entered,”. My theory is that the word “rose” in the title is not referring to a rose, like a flower, but instead is implying that despite her secretive and unfriendly ways people still admired her. They respected her enough to rise out of their seats when she entered a room. There was something fascinating about her to all of the townspeople. The entire town seemed to know she did not have to pay taxes but nobody complained. She could get poison without explaining herself. People accepted that she received special treatment and they did not. They pitied her,at least they claimed to, but Emily had plenty of time and opportunities to make up for the life she did not get to have when her father was alive. It seemed like the townspeople never thought about Emily as anything more than somebody who had gone from having everything to nothing.
I do not think the narrator is reliable. Emily did not talk to anyone and no one really knew her. Everything the townspeople know about her had come from guesswork, rumors and spying. This story told by the townspeople could be a cover up, to portray themselves in a better light. Perhaps they want the reader to believe that they really, truly felt sorry for Emily and tried to help her. They talked about waiting to enter her house until after she was buried out of respect for her but I suspect people started lining up to get inside as soon as she was pronounced dead. Emily was the weirdo of the neighborhood, her house a tourist attraction. It is important to consider we may not be getting the real truth about Emily and the actions taken by her and others, because the truth could be so obscured by the narrator that we may only be getting a fraction of what really occurred.

Question 6
I am not too bothered by “The Storm's” happy ending. It is not realistic but not everything has to be believable. I think stories are meant to entertain or teach. They do not have to reinforce right or wrong. I think in real life Calixta and Alcee would eventually be caught and their spouses would be upset. As for the affair reinforcing their relationships with their husband and wife, I'm not sure it would really do that. Affairs cause more problems then they can fix. If Calixta was wanting to leave her husband and Alcee was wanting to leave his wife and they got together because they realized they were each others' true love than that would be one thing. They can appreciate what they have even more because they tried something else and decided to go back. Another outcome could be, that in real life Calixta and Alcee would end up together and be happy for a little while. Or they could ruin both their marriages and reputations. They could also just live with the guilt and never tell their partners. I think it is really difficult to determine what would have happened if it had been real life. Everyone's opinions on this subject differ and circumstances do too.