While Lorraine Hanisberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun is considered as being much ahead of its times in terms of depiction of black people’s daily life and the repression that they have to undergo at a time when considerable developments have taken place in the direction of giving them their due civil rights, A Rose for Emily is a short story written by William Faulkner about Emily, an old woman who lived in the small town of Jefferson. Faulkner has depicted several themes in A Rose for Emily but the most significant is that of decay which is evident in the entire story. This essay will analyze the two works and compare and contrast them in the context of what messages they have conveyed to people and society, and what issues they have highlighted in the viewpoint of the two authors.
The aims of the play A Raisin in the Sun were shared by Hansberry with her husband in telling him that she desired to create a description by way of a social drama, of the lifestyle of Americans Africans, and in doing so she created an imaginary set up that appeared to be agonizingly real at times. The plot of the story centers on the way her characters go about doing things in trying to escape from their restricted surroundings. It is also known that a major part of the play bears some resemblance to the personal life experiences of Hansberry. Conversely, the story A Rose for Emily is written in the typical Faulkner style of flowing awareness and perceptions. The story primarily illustrates the theme of decaying which is demonstrated in the manner in which the town, Emily’s house, and Ms. Emily herself become decomposed over the years and decades. They no longer represent the pleasure and happiness one received when associated with them when Emily was young.
The story, A Rose for Emily is set in the early years of the 20th century and is narrated by an unidentified person who resides in the same town. The reader learns about Emily’s death in the beginning and about how she used to live in the town as a young lady with her father and lover. However, the end of the story depicts the disconcerting fact that Emily is not dead and was all along in hiding. In contrast, A Raisin in the Sun is about a family and reveals to the reader the kind of life lived in tenement houses in bigger cities. The play depicts the struggle that the characters undergo in attempting to find a better future for their children.
The characters in A Raisin in the Sun are real in the sense that the reader can have a feel of a mother’s love for her family and for her children to succeed in life. The other characters can be perceived in terms of their aspirations. Ruth wants that her daughter Beneatha should become a doctor and aims at providing her with all facilities to achieve this end but Beneatha is frustrated with the traditional beliefs and ideas of her mother. Beneatha is not happy with the traditional marriage that her brother went through. Her character displays a high sense of dependence on dreams that should be fulfilled to make her feel contented. Walter is portrayed as an angry man who does not appear to get anywhere with such an attitude. The silver lining in the play is revealed at the end when the family wins against all the daunting tasks faced by them. The play reveals the strong willpower of the family in being unwilling to swallow their pride in the face of several difficulties and at the behest of Lindner who wants them to leave the white neighborhood. This is although in the prevailing circumstances there is the likelihood of the family suffering from more distinct acts of discrimination. The characters as created by Hansberry speak and behave in the typical and original dialect of Chicago neighborhoods. The author has also used a nonstandard dialect that would typically be used by black people.
The hardships and struggles of the African Americans can be easily seen upon reading the play. The author has given a deep insight into the struggle for civil rights by the African Americans and the struggle of their younger generation in this regard is equally perceived at times when they face discrimination. Books and Writers (2008) have cited a speech that the author gave in 1959 whereby she said, “The unmistakable roots of the universal solidarity of the colored peoples of the world are no longer predictable as they were in my father’s time – they are here. And I for one, as a black woman in the United States in the mid-Twentieth Century, feel that I am more typical of the present temperament of my people than not, when I say that I cannot allow the devious purposes of white supremacy to lead me to any conclusion other than what may be to most robust and important one of our time: that the ultimate destiny and aspirations of the African peoples and twenty million American Negroes are inextricably and magnificently bound up together forever” (Books and Writers, 2008).
Although the play A Raisin in the Sun is about the American Blacks it also deals with a common theme about the failure of the American dream which can be related to by anyone under the given circumstances. According to Gerald Weales, “Walter Lee’s difficulty….. is that he has accepted the American myth of success at its face value, that he is trapped, as Willy Loman [in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman] was trapped by a false dream. In planting so indigenous an image at the center of her play, Miss Hansberry has come as close as possible to what she intended–a play about Negroes which is not simply a Negro play” (EPA, 2009).
Hansberry aptly argues about the inherent discrimination that is present in the Chicago housing market and other big cities whereby houses in black neighborhoods are almost double the prices as compared to white neighborhoods. Although the Younger family can fulfill its dream of leaving their run-down apartment and purchase a house in a white neighborhood, their happiness is not for long since Mr. Lindner comes up and attempts to pressurize the family to leave. The family fights back against the proposals and pressure exerted by Mr. Lindner but has to ultimately leave after Walter loses the entire money. The family decides to work harder by taking extra jobs so that the children have a better life and a brighter future (Julie, 2007).
A Rose for Emily depicts a different story about the society in Jefferson and how time can lead to the gradual decay of a town and of the way people are perceived over time. As the story progresses and Emily grows up, the town of Jefferson is also growing old. The street on which Emily lived while she was young was considered to be the best during that time but now it is in bad shape and is most awful and unpleasant for residents to refer to in any manner. It appears that with Emily the street has become aged and corroded. While Emily was young, she and her family drew a lot of respect and they were amongst the most respected and valued residents of the town. As Emily grew older she was gradually perceived differently by people in Jefferson. As an old lady, she was viewed in the same manner as her old house came to be viewed. The entire respect earned by her father was over after the older men and women died and gradually the old charisma of Jefferson began to fade away.
Emily’s house was once considered to be one of the most exquisite in the entire town of Jefferson. The house was very well maintained while Emily was young and as she grew older so did her house in eventually becoming a blemish for the town of Jefferson. Its faded paint and messy yard gave a bleak picture of a bygone era when the same house was considered to be a landmark home and center of attraction. Faulkner has given a meaningful account of how the house and Emily were directly associated in terms of both growing old and losing their splendor. Both Emily and her house began to be gradually looked upon as monuments of the past. A Rose for Emily deals with the influence that time has had over the status of people and about the way people are perceived differently. The story is a clear example of a lady and her family that had a virtual aristocratic lifestyle and how over time the circumstances are changed. The author depicts that this happens if people do not consistently maintain their humility and humanity. Emily was a beautiful girl when young and enjoyed a high status but by the time she grew old she had lost so much in terms of personal charm and happiness.
Emily was considered to be one of the most gorgeous women in Jefferson when she was young. Her father was a powerful man and young men were scared to approach her in attempting to court her. But as she grew older Emily started losing her good looks and in old age became grey-haired and plump. It was also believed that her thoughts had decayed. She had a lover named Homer Barron who people thought had left her but it is made known only at the end of the story that he had been poisoned by Emily. His body had been left by Emily in her bedroom. By the time she became old her mind had corroded to the extent that she killed the man who loved her. It appeared she was not aware of what was right or wrong, nor could she understand if something was normal. Her mental state indicated why her house had decayed to such an extent.
Although Faulkner has several themes in A Rose for Emily, decay is a major theme depicted in the entire story. With Emily, her house, and the town of Jefferson, all appear to be growing old and decaying over time. Miss Emily loses her beauty and her senses; the house loses its exquisite beauty and the town of Jefferson changes and grows old. The author has conveyed how a beautiful southern town decays over time and how a beautiful lady loses her mental aptitude and balance, all in conveying that eventually all humans grow old and decay if values are not maintained and care is not taken of mind, body, and soul, as also of material things such as houses and other personal possessions (Bernardo, 2009).
While comparing and contrasting the two pieces of literature one is bound to find a lot of differences between the two in terms of the issues that they deal with. A Raisin in the Sun deals with issues of race, exploitation of American Blacks, and the repression that they have to go through in attempts to improve their circumstances and to make a better life for themselves and their coming generations. The play traces the gradual development of art and intellectualism amongst Blacks which is aptly narrated by Schmoop:
“A Raisin in the Sun is part of broader shift in black art towards depicting working-class, ordinary African-Africans. Previously, black intellectuals did not use literature, art, or the stage to portray working-class African-Americans for fear they would perpetuate undesirable stereotypes. By focusing on the dreams and aspirations of one particular working-class black family, moreover, Hansberry was able to show audiences the universality of black aspirations while also demonstrating that their race posed a significant barrier to achieving those goals” (Schmoop, 2009).
Indeed, Hansberry has depicted the struggles of a single-family which is Black American. Most of the themes in the play convey love in the family, rivalry amongst siblings, desiring the best for children, and aiming to earn more and to have more material things. Colour is used as a theme in portraying the concerns of black people and the difficulties they face in being exploited repeatedly in their daily life and in most things that they attempt to achieve in life. A Raisin in the Sun is remarkable in that it is seen as being simplistic in addition to providing the reader with the extent to which the African Americans respond to the exploitation that still appears to be happening. The play represents different emotions of different age groups of Black Americans in giving an in-depth view of the issues being faced by them.
Contrastingly, in his story, Faulkner presents the viewpoints of an unknown resident of Jefferson where the family of Ms. Emily was a living example of the true aristocracy. The author has presented the reader with powerful arguments in stating that privileges can at times prove to become prisons. The story depicts the superficiality in what people perceive amongst children growing up in the lap of luxury. Miss Emily’s younger days were lonely since her life was controlled strictly by her father and he turned away all her suitors. Years of suppression gave way to freedom after Emily’s father died and she immediately found a boyfriend named Homer Barron who was a Yankee day laborer and not very well off. She drove around the town with him and bought expensive gifts for him. However, in due course, she discovered that he was gay and could not tolerate the frustration. She dared to buy arsenic from the chemist and poisoned him in her own house and left his body to decompose. People in the town did not realize that after she purchased arsenic, her lover was nowhere to be seen. Nor could the residents of Jefferson connect the foul smell that came from Emily’s house. The murder was never spoken about by the people of Jefferson and it was officially known forty years later when Emily died. The people of the town were moved to see the skeletal remains of Homer on Emily’s bed with her grey hair lying close to his head on the pillow. The story is a stark revelation of tragedies that occur in society as a result of observance of social norms that largely restrict than liberate our conscience and our inner self.
Reference List
Bernardo Karen, (2009). William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily“.
Books and Writers, (2009). Lorraine Hansberry (1930 – 1965).
EPA, (2009). Hansberry Lorraine.
Julie E, (2007). Analyzing A Raisin in the Sun, Associated Content.
Schmoop, (2009). A Raisin in the Sun: in a Nutshell.