Short Story Essay - Grade: A PDF

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Society against Outcasts
A Rose For Emily
Cadillac Flambe...

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September 11, 2018 Short Story Essay Society Against Outcasts One of the essential elements of literature are the characters in the story. By studying literature, we are able to evaluate their traits and the conflicts they experience in the story. Not only do we assess the characters role in the story, but we infer what was the intention for these characters by the author. In Cadillac Flambé by Ralph Ellison and A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, LeeWillie Minifees and Emily Grierson serve as human representations of characters stuck in their own time, with LeeWillie trapped in the present and Emily stuck in her past. There is an undeniable commonality that LeeWillie and Emily are perceived as outcasts in their own society because of reasons that are beyond one’s control. From these stories, it is revealed that individuals have no control of their own realities and are limited by their own society. In A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, Emily refuses to enter the new world and is voluntarily allowing herself to be stuck in the past. Emily is an outcast to her small-town of Jefferson. The short story takes place in the Deep South during the post-civil war after the 1860’s. Emily voluntarily isolates herself from her own society and does not contribute to her own community by not paying her taxes:“‘ I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourself’” (2). By not paying her taxes, Emily is refusing to enter the new and progressive world that her society is in, leaving Emily to represent the slow decay of the old South. It wasn’t to Emily’s knowledge that Colonel Sartoris has been dead for over 10 years, indicating she hasn’t left her house since. Her house is reminder of how Emily represents the decay of the South while her home suffers from deterioration as time proceeds, such as the rotting smell of death originating from the

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house. Emily is a financial burden to the town, and rather than trying to be part of the community, she chooses to confine herself to the only the inside of her home. Emily, being unable to obtain recognition from the townspeople, is instead seen as “a tradition, a duty and a care” (1). She intentionally choses to carry on the lifestyle she lives without any change, remaining to stay indoors slowly regressing away from her community. Emily’s father deliberately separating her from potential bachelors contributed to her incompetence of moving forward in time and being accepted into her society. The death of Emily’s father left her to even more loneliness: “Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized” (2). Being unable to let go of her father equates to Emily being incapable of letting go her past: “She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (2). The idea of Emily holding onto dead her father’s dead body proves that she has problems letting go of things that are in the past. Even before her father’s death, Emily was still forced to be isolated in terms of romantic relationships: “None of the young men were quite good enough Miss Emily and such… So, when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated;” (2). Emily has lived a life of loneliness for her entire life and her father was one of the only men in her life that she ever loved. Although her father is described in a violent image: “his back to [Emily] and clutching a horsewhip…” (2), his death still haunts Emily even in present time. Now that her father is deceased and can no longer look after Emily, the townspeople of Jefferson are carrying the burden of tending to her. By murdering Homer Barron, Emily has killed the progress being made to reshape the South. Emily is a model citizen of a character who is stuck in her own time. She is unable to progress into the new world after slavery has ended. Meeting Homer Barron, an outsider from

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the North, was a turning point for Emily Grierson. Unlike Emily, Homer wasn’t a reject from society: “Whenever you heard of lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in the center of the group”. In some perspectives, Homer is the antagonist in the story since he is a Northerner and suggests change for the future of the South. Homer contributes to the push towards a progressive era in Jefferson by reworking the sidewalks in Jefferson. Homer Baron is a literal representation of the industrialization and modernity traveling to the South. Emily’s sinister way of murdering Homer by using rat arsenic shows that Emily perceives of the North is poisonous. Homer is also belittled by the townspeople of Jefferson since “‘[they] would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer’”. The liberal ideals that the North adheres to is seen as toxic to Emily, causing her to murder Homer before any of those reformist ideas headway closer to Emily. Emily refuses to accept any modernist approach a new lifestyle and continues to decay in the background while her society progresses. Emily makes choices in her life that lead her to becoming outcast in her town, however, In Cadillac Flambé, LeeWillie, an African American musician, realizes that he will never be able to move up in social ladder because of the color of his skin: “‘Here you been thinking you had made it. You been thinking you were as free as a bird – even though a black bird’” (259). LeeWillie’s American dream can never be a reality since being an African American automatically means you have low status in society, “‘It’s just that he would low-rate a thing truly so fine as a Cadillac just in order to degrade me and my people. He was accusing me of lowering the value of the auto, when all I ever wanted was the very best’” (261). It was more than just degrading his Cadillac, but it felt like LeeWillie’s uphill battle to purchase the Cadillac was completely blown over. After slavery ended, it was difficult for anyone who was a non-white to earn any type of stature in America. LeeWillie believes he has earned status in America when

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he purchased his Cadillac that was appraised by everybody, however he was still only recognized at the same mediocre status as any other black man in his society. LeeWillie will never be liberated from the racist society he lives in and must learn to endure the treatment he receives. After feeling that everything LeeWillie has worked hard for has been stripped away from him, he chooses to cause turmoil in front of the home of national politician, Senator Sunraider, by burning his very own Cadillac, “We were stunned by the sacrificial act and, indeed, it was as though we had become the unwilling participants in a primitive ceremony requiring the sacrifice of a beautiful object…”(255). It is unfortunate that in LeeWillie’s time, that even American politicians would publicly bash on luxurious things just to degrade black people. LeeWillie commits a deplorable act by burning his Cadillac, and he willingly permits the action of his Cadillac being destroyed because of the rude remarks made by Senator Sunraider. LeeWillie’s recognition of setting his Cadillac on fire is like LeeWillie surrendering himself to the words of Senator Sunraider: “‘Because, remember, nothing makes me feel better than giving away something, than sacrificing something, that he dearly loves’” (265). LeeWillie would rather destroy an object so beautiful like the Cadillac, than to accept his low status by race. Referring to the Cadillac as a “coon cage” solely because an African American owns that kind of vehicle demonstrates the racism still present after segregation has ended. LeeWillie has been cheated out of not only his status, but his identity as well. The Cadillac symbolizes the success he has made of himself: “‘I worked hard to get the money to buy this Caddy,” (261). The Cadillac gives LeeWillie his identity because he believes it is one of the greatest achievements he earned while capturing his American Dream. The Cadillac is the only attribute that gave LeeWillie any type of distinction between him and any other black man. It

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wasn’t ordinary to see a man of color driving a Cadillac during LeeWillie’s time. It is important for LeeWillie to realize that in his existing society, luxurious things cannot buy happiness, but the feeling finally accepted by everybody will have brought him even greater satisfaction. LeeWillie is trapped in his social status, similar to a hamster running on a treadmill, he will never be able to achieve any higher status in his existing time. Faulkner writes: “… But I was really trapped in. COON CAGE, running on one of those little TREADMILLS like a SQUIRREL or a HAMSTER” (251-262). The burning Cadillac replicates his feelings of anger towards Senator Sunraider for calling LeeWillie’s car a “coon cage”. LeeWillie’s low status is a product of terrible timing and being a colored man. LeeWillie will unceasingly always be looked in despise by other people purely because he is black, an inherent factor he has no control of. Because of the fact that he is black, LeeWillie’s hard work and determination will always be brushed to side and will never be seen as equal to a white man. He has worked hard to earn his Cadillac, however “‘now it’s a question of whether [LeeWillie] can afford it in other terms other than money’” (261). LeeWillie is now inclined to destroy his valuable Cadillac to show everyone in society that the Cadillac doesn’t give him his identity and he will not allow luxurious object to define his place in society. Both authors reveal to the readers how outcasts in society can never really escape from their own demons, and instead are trapped to their own time and self, forced to accept who they are. In Cadillac Flambé by Ralph Ellison, LeeWillie is held back to stay at the bottom of the lowest social status by his own American society because of color of his skin. In A Rose For Emily by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson is trapped in the past and outlives her life from a progressive society. Time and place are imperative factors that are responsible for the social placement of both LeeWillie and Emily. Although LeeWillie and Emily have control of their

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own life, their society continues to reduce their roles in the social hierarchy of their own community, leading them to be the outcasts at their own disadvantage.

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