Miss Emily and the Invisible Man Essays -- Literary Analysis, Faulkner

William Faulkner and Ralph Ellison com from two different back grounds. William Faulkner was a white man born into a family who was affluent and powerful. (DiYanni 78) Ralph Ellison was a black man born in the south. (DiYanni 341) Through their stories they share their views of the south at that time. Faulkner and Ellison had contrasting views on the south about how people with differences were treated and whether or not the south’s changes were positive, however they both view the changing south as inevitable. In Faulkner’s south people who are different are not punished but they are protected from the public embarrassment of their honor. In â€Å"A Rose for Emily† Colonel Sartoris forgives Miss Emily of the taxes she owes the city of Jefferson. Instead of telling Miss Emily the truth, because of her position in the town she out of honor would have had to turn the offer down, the narrator says â€Å"Not that Miss Emily would have accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father had loaned money to the town, which the town, as a matter of business, preferred this way of repaying.† (Faulkner 79) Another example of the townspeople protecting Miss Emily’s honor is when they smell a repulsive odor coming from Miss Emily’s house. The mayor Judge Stevens is hesitant to confront Miss Emily the issue at hand. When one of the Aldermen, from the young generation, suggests addressing her of the situation Judge Steven s says "Dammit, sir, will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?" (Faulkner 80) The townspeople ultimately decide to sneak onto Miss Emily’s property so the can remove the stench from her house without insulting her honor. The most extreme case of the citizens of Jefferson prote... ... fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies' magazines.† (Faulkner 83) In Battle Royal there is a sense of the inevitable change in the south. That the Invisible Man will follow his grandfathers words. That he has become privy to the game the white man is playing with him. Both of these authors’ short stories cover the changing south. Both of their short stories give us a profound impact on the thinking of these two men when it comes to their views of the south. Coming from different backgrounds this gives the reader a good view of what the overall picture of the south looked like at the time. Faulkner and Ellis disagreed about how differences were handled in the south and whether the changing south was good or bad, but they both of them agreed that the south changing was unavoidable.