english test tomorrow

plot

...The time is the 1930s. The place is Jefferson, Mississippi. After a reclusive resident, Emily Grierson, dies at the age of seventy-four, Jeffersonians turn out in great numbers for the funeral—the men to pay homage to a "fallen monument," the narrator says, and the women mainly to view the inside of her house. The only one who had seen the interior over the decade or so before her death was her servant, Tobe, an old black man who did the cooking, gardening, and marketing. .......The house, built in the 1870s, is an elegant edifice, with cupolas and balconies; but it had decayed considerably after garages and cotton gins sprang up to replace the other homes in Miss Grierson's neighborhood. .......Townsfolk remember Emily as a woman who did not pay local taxes. Back in 1894, Colonel Sartoris—the mayor—exempted her from paying taxes after he concocted a story that said her father had once lent money to the town. Many years later, other mayors tried to collect from her, but she always sent their tax bills back. One day, city officials went to her home to collect. After her servant showed them into the parlor, where they raised dust from the old furniture when they sat down, Miss Emily—a fat woman with a small frame who leaned on a cane—appeared and said, "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me." Her visitors tell her that no records exist that excuse her from taxes. ......."See Colonel Sartoris," she replied. "I have no taxes in Jefferson." (Colonel Sartoris had been dead for ten years.) .......She then directed Tobe to show them to the door. ......."So she vanquished them, horse and foot," the narrator says, "just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell. That was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart—the one we believe would marry her—had deserted her." .......After these events, she rarely left her house. Tobe did the marketing for her. When a neighbor woman complained about the smell, the eighty-year-old mayor, Judge Stevens, told the woman it was probably just a dead rat or snake. Two more people complained the following day. In the evening, the Board of Aldermen convened. One member, a young man, told the three elderly members that the board should tell her to "clean up the place" in a specified amount of time. Judge Stevens expressed his opposition to the idea. So, rather than issuing an order, the men went to her property at midnight the next day and, after sniffing around, broke into the cellar and sprinkled lime there, then sprinkled some in the outbuildings. Within a few weeks, the smell was gone. .......That was right about the time when people began to pity Emily even though they believed the Griersons had always thought themselves better than others. Emily's father had even driven off all of Emily's suitors, presumably because he thought they were not good enough for her. ......."So when she got to be thirty and was still single, we were not pleased exactly, but vindicated," the narrator says; "even with insanity in the family she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances if they had really materialized." (Emily's great-aunt, old lady Wyatt, had gone insane.) .......After her father died, Emily inherited the house, but that was all. Consequently, she had no money to speak of. Her lack of means made her seem quite ordinary to her neighbors. That was all right by the them, for now they could begin showing compassion toward her. When townspeople called on her to offer condolences, she told them her father was not dead. Ministers and doctors visited to her to persuade her to give up the body. After three days, she relented, and her father was buried. .......At that time, people did not regard her as demented; they simply thought she wanted to hang on to her father. He was her only company. After his burial, she was ill for a long time. When she recovered and people saw her again, she had short hair, making her look much younger. .......One summer, a construction crew began installing new sidewalks for the city. The foreman was a Northerner, Homer Barron, who became famous in town for his big laugh and for cursing the black men wielding picks. After a time, people began seeing him riding about with Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons in a buggy with a team of bays. Was she serious about him? Or was she just being nice to an out-of-towner of inferior social status? Folks weren't sure. But they felt sorry for her as the last of the Griersons. .......However, women eventually began to think her relationship with Barron was setting a bad example, and they had a Baptist minister call on her (although she was an Episcopalian). After speaking with her, he refused to say what passed between them. The following Sunday, Emily and Homer again took their buggy ride. Meanwhile, the minister's wife wrote a letter to her relatives in Alabama, and two of her cousins—both women—came to visit her. After a time, Emily bought a men's grooming set at the local jeweler's. On each of the silver pieces appeared the letters "H. B." She also purchased men's clothing, including a nightshirt. The narrator says the townspeople concluded that they had been married. .......One day, Emily bought some arsenic at the local drug store. The druggist clearly labeled the container "for rats." There was talk the next day that she planned to commit suicide, for Homer had made it clear that he was not the marrying kind. ......."[H]e liked men," the narrator says, "and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elks' club," .......Then Homer left, and a week later so did the two cousins. However, within three days, a neighbor saw Homer return. Tobe had let him in through the kitchen door. Over the next six months, the only person who left the house was Tobe, with his market basket. ......."When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray," the narrator says. Her hair continued to turn gray, and she continued to remain indoors. When she was around forty, however, she received students whom she taught to paint china. She did that for six or seven years. It was during that period that Colonel Sartoris started forgiving her tax payments. .......After younger men came to power in the town, the number of her students began to dwindle. Eventually she had no students at all and closed her door to everyone. When tax bills arrived, she sent them back. When free mail delivery commenced, she refused to permit postal officials to tack numbers above her door and install a mailbox. As time passed, she used only the first floor of her house. At age seventy-four, she died in a bed downstairs. No one was aware that she had been ill, for her old servant never spoke to anyone. ......."[H]is voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse," the narrator says. .......(The story returns to the present.) .......The two cousins from Alabama hold the funeral on the second day after Emily's death. After Tobe lets the townspeople in for the ceremony, he goes away and doesn't return. The town's ladies stand around whispering. Many of the oldest men, some of whom wear Confederate uniforms, are out on the porch or lawn talking about having danced with Emily or courted her. One room upstairs has been locked for forty years. After the funeral, the people break it open. It resembles a bridal room, with faded rose curtains and lamps with rose-colored shades. On a table are the grooming set for Homer Barron, a collar, and a tie. On the bed is the rotting corpse of Homer Barron in an attitude of embrace. On the pillow next to it is a head indentation and a long gray hair from Emily's head.

A rose for emily

Emily Grierson: Main character, who is dead. Her story unfolds in flashbacks. Emily was born during the Civil War as an only child and died in the 1930s. When her father reared her with Old South values, he prevented young men from courting her, apparently in the belief that they were not good enough for her (or possibly because he had an unnatural relationship with her). Mr. Grierson: Emily's father. Tobe: Emily's black servant. Colonel Sartoris: One-time mayor of Jefferson. He grants tax forgiveness to Emily, saying the city is indebted to her family. Young Alderman: Man who wants to collect taxes from Emily. Judge Stevens: Elderly alderman and one-time mayor. He is wary about collecting taxes from Emily. Two Other Elderly Aldermen Old Lady Wyatt: Emily's great-aunt, who went insane. Homer Barron: Foreman of a construction crew installing sidewalks in Jefferson. He takes Emily for buggy rides. Baptist Minister: Clergyman who calls upon Emily to tell her that her relationship with Homer Barron is setting a bad example. Minister's Wife: Woman who writes to Emily's relatives to complain about Emily's behavior. Emily's Alabama Cousins: Visitors who apparently advise Emily on what to do about Homer Barron. Druggist: Man who sells arsenic to Emily. Delivery Boy: Youth who delivers the arsenic. Laborers: Men who dig the pathway for the new sidewalk. Narrator: Jefferson resident who tells Emily's story. Mayors Who Succeed Colonel Sartoris Various City Officials Jefferson Residents Civil War Veterans