"A Rose for Emily"

I did not think I would enjoy this story at first. I assumed that Miss Emily Grierson was a popular lady in her hometown based on the opening paragraph. The narrator said "our whole town went to her funeral". This lead me to believe that she must have been an important person in her community. I was suprised to find out it was because she never left her home nor did she have visitors. I think that the narrator was a neighbor or somebody who lived nearby. The narrator described her home in such detail, I could only assume that this person looked at Miss Emily's home often. The narrator had a flashback of Miss Emily while attending her funeral. This flashback caused the narrator to recall another memory, that is why the story jumps around a little. It did not make it difficult to follow though. Miss Emily became "sick" after her father died and then met Homer Barron. Homer seemed like friendly well liked person in the town. The narrator stated "Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in the center of the group"(209). This made me believe he would bring some happiness to Miss Emily's life. Until she decided to purchase the "poison". I never thought she was going to kill herself with it, but I did think she was planning on killing a person. When the druggist said to her "But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for". Miss Emily did not give him an answer, she just stared at him. This made me believe she was planning to do something illegal. Also the narrator stated (207) "After her father's death..,after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all" and "the smell developed", several people had noticed this odor. I guessed that it was decaying body. I think that the reason she decided to kill Homer was because she was afraid he would leave her. Because she was a loner and did not have any family near her, she wanted companionship. Several people in the town had been talking about how suprised they were to see Miss Emily and Homer together and even said "Poor Emily" everytime they seen her. The people did not think this was a relationship that would last, and were suprised when Homer returned after his work there was finished.After reading "Homer had remarked -he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk's Club-that he was not a marrying man", I figured this must be agood reason for her to feel she had to do something before it was too late. This is why I think Miss Emily poisoned Homer, she realized that she could never fully "keep" Homer in her life and planned to kill him so he could never leave her.