"a Rose for Emily" Foreshadowing

“A Rose for Emily”- Foreshadowing

In the short story “A Rose for Emily” there are numerous events that foreshadow the finding of Homer Baron’s corpse. There are the obvious events such as the odor permeating Miss. Emily’s mansion, and the disappearance of Mr. Homer Baron, and then there are events that are more subtle that lead the reader to the discovery of Mr. Baron’s body. The fact that Miss. Emily Grierson has an extremely difficult time accepting change in her life is and enormous indicator that she persuaded Mr. Homer Baron to remain with her.

The odor of death is essentially the same for all mammals. It is the most over-powering, rancid, putrefying stench known to man. When Miss. Emily’s house first started to smell, the neighbors com plained to the Judge. His response was that it was probably a rat or a snake htat had been killed. As the complaints grew in numbers, some of the men decided to sprinkle lime around her house in hopes that it would alleviate the stench. However, the smell did not dissipate for another week or two (Faulkner, 2). Now, if the odor had come from a mere snake or rate, the smell would have persisted for only a few days. It had to have been a much larger mammal indeed for the foul smell to endure as long as it did.

Miss. Emily and Mr. Baron had been engaged in a in a relationship for quite some time when he suddenly disappeared. The assumption that Mr. Baron had deserted Miss. Emily was based on spiteful speculation. An eye witness placed Mr. Baron entering Miss. Emily’s house the night before he disappeared. “A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Baron (Faulkner, 5).” There was no mention of anyone ever seeing Mr. Baron leaving the mansion. This causes the reader to wonder what became of him. It would be a reasonable deduction for the reader to assume he never left Miss. Emily’s house.

Every change that was inflicted upon Miss. Emily’s life by some outside influence was extremely difficult for her to grasp. Miss. Emily was capable of changes that she herself initiated. She could not readily accept the