The norms of society are part of the behavior of individuals. The influence of others conditions us in everything we do. In “A Rose for Emily” and “A&P,” they show behaviors where the protagonists act based on specific social norms. The analysis of these stories considers the literary elements of setting, theme, and point of view.
Setting
The setting that surrounds both Sammy and Emily’s characters is that both are American peoples with customs and beliefs inherited from generation to generation and are part of their culture. Sammy comments, “You know one thing is a girl in a bathing suit on the beach […] and another in the cold of the A&P […].” (A&P, paragraph 6). Within his beliefs, the guy did not consider it appropriate for the girls to be wearing swimsuits in the store. Compared to A Rose for Emily and the customs of that time in a southern town during the days of slavery. “The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead.” (A Rose for Emily Chapter ll, paragraph 14) In the quote mentions custom and usual, which shows what they did and how they used to dress when there was a funeral.
However, the places are different. The environment in which they both operate is opposite; in one, it is during the last century, shrouded in mystery, extravagance, and madness. The other is in a simple atmosphere, in a more current era. The narration time is minutes in A&P, while in A Rose for Emily is the story of several years. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor — he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, […]” (Chapter l, paragraph 3) “What he meant was, our town is five miles from a beach […] As I say, we’re right in the middle of town, and if you stand at our front doors you can see two banks and the Congregational church and the newspaper store and three real estate offices and about twenty-seven old free-loaders tearing up Central Street because the sewer broke again.” (A&P, paragraph 10) Opposite sites with completely different societies obviously by the time each story is told. In the course of almost 7 decades, places change and so do people.
The following photograph shows the society of 1894, with customs and culture different from the habits of 1962.
Theme
The A&P theme and A Rose for Emily both mention sexism. Prejudice is present in both works. A&P displays obscene comments regarding girls, while the sexism used in Faulkner’s work is characterized by fostering women’s dependent role and weakness. Sammy describes one of the girls referring to parts of her body in an obscene way “She was a chunky kid, with a good tan and a sweet broad soft-looking can with those two crescents of white just under it, where the sun never seems to hit, at the top of the backs of her legs.” (A&P, Paragraph 1) Emily’s father overprotects her. We can say with evidence that her father always controlled her and prevented her from having a boyfriend. “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily and such. We had long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them framed by the back-flung front door.” (A Rose for Emily, Chapter ll, paragraph 12) “We remembered all the young men her father had driven away.” (Chapter ll, paragraph 15) Emily’s father was controlling by meddling in Emily’s life and not allowing her to have a partner. Social prejudices and morals change from one era to another, while in 1961, it was frowned upon for some girls to walk around in swimsuits in a store, where the manager tells them: “Girls, this isn’t the beach.” (A&P paragraph 14) This fact would have seemed immoral and intolerant at the end of the XIX century. On the other hand, in A Rose for Emily, the gender role that accepts certain social norms as appropriate for men and women encourages inequality and promotes stereotypes. “Just as if a man — any man — could keep a kitchen properly […]” (A Rose for Emily Chapter ll, paragraph 3)
Laura Bates mentions in her talk about everyday sexism (6: 37), how women are perceived, how they are still attacked, with comments about their body, and how everyday sexism some take it as something normal, stating that there is still gender inequality.
Point of view
The stories analyzed tell the stories in the first person, only that in A&P, we know that Sammy the protagonist is the one who tells the story, unlike in William Faulkner’s story where we do not know the identity of the narrator, who sometimes speaks in plural and in the name of all the citizens of the town. “I’m in the third check-out slot, with my back to the door, so I don’t see them until they’re over by the bread.”(A&P, paragraph 1) Sammy begins to narrate what happened that day in the store where he worked as a cashier. “A few house-slaves in pin curlers even looked around after pushing their carts past to make sure what they had seen was correct.” (A&P, paragraph 5) Here Sammy refers to housewives as house slaves, evidence of the sexism used in the story. In A Rose for Emily, the following quote shows that the narrator of the story was an inhabitant of the town and mentions some prejudices about the gender role “WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house […]” (Chapter l, paragraph 1) In A&P the narration is more fluid, there are more thoughts and feelings of the main character, while in A Rose for Emily the sequence of the story is not linear and takes from one date to another making it a bit confusing. “He didn’t like my smiling — -as I say he doesn’t miss much — but he concentrates on giving the girls that sad Sunday- school-superintendent stare.” (A&P, paragraph 16) Sammy recounts the events sometimes in a comical way, expressing what happened with the other characters but also stereotyping. In contrast, A Rose for Emily begins with Emily’s death. “WHEN Miss Emily Grierson died […]” (Chapter l, paragraph 1) The story goes on to tell when Miss Emily was alive. “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition […]” (Chapter l, paragraph 3), then in chapter ll, it tells what happened two years ago “That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart […]” (paragraph 2), the events are not narrated chronologically and that influences the way the reader perceives them.
Maria Shiver, in the article What Does It Mean to ‘Be A Man’? she recommends watching the movie “the mask you live into” to challenge and overcome limiting gender stereotypes.” The purpose of the article is to raise awareness to create a more supportive culture and instill respect from children and avoid stereotypes that arise from certain social norms that lead to discrimination and violence.
In sum, then to coexist, we need social norms, and they are the ones that influence us to behave in a certain way, to have certain beliefs, they guide us to indicate what is allowed and what is not. These norms or customs change from one era to another, as seen in the two stories compared. We analyze the setting that both occur in American towns but with different cultures due to the great difference in the years they were written. The theme of each story uses sexism; both make comments about women that are not suitables. Prejudices, the moral, and gender role are also addressed. The narrators of the stories are in the first person, with passages about what happened to them; in A Rose for Emily, the narration is more confusing. In A&P, it is more understandable. As a society, we need to change certain instilled behaviors to have a culture of respect and tolerance. Although many things have changed, violence, stereotypes, sexism, prejudices, etc., continue to exist. We must act within the allowed rules, but be clear that these must serve us for harmonious and peaceful coexistence.
