THE ACTIVITIES

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This short story is organized through sections of flashbacks.
Appropriately, the story begins with death, flashes
back to the near distant past and leads on to the demise of a woman and the traditions of the past she personifies.
After carefully building such descriptive statements,
Faulkner flashes back in time and examines the events that lead up to the moment of death.

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Miss Emily is born.
She and her father ride around the town in an old, elegant carriage.
Her father dies, and for three days she refuses to acknowledge his death.
Homer Barron arrives in town and begins to court Miss Emily.
She buys a man’s silver toilet set—a mirror, brush, and comb—and men’s clothing.
The town relegates her to disgrace and sends for her cousins.
The cousins arrive, and Homer leaves town.
Three days after the cousins leave, Homer returns.
Miss Emily buys poison at the local drug store.
Homer mysteriously disappears.
The neighborhood think that Miss Emily will commit suicide by taking that poison because they think that Homer has rejected her marriage proposal.
A horrible stench envelops Miss Emily’s house.
Four town eldermen secretly sprinkle lime on her lawn.

The clash between the past and the present is evidenced by the different approaches that each generation takes concerning Miss Emily's taxes. In the past, Colonel Sartoris had remitted them for her, believing it uncivilized to remind a Southern woman to pay taxes.
After many months of not seeing Emily, they realize she has died alone.
Soon after she has been buried, several of the men open the upstairs forcefully. Surprisingly, they find the room contains a man's tie, suit and shoes, and a silver toilet set which Miss Emily had purchased for Homer before his disappearance.
Homer's remains lie on the bed, dressed in a nightshirt. Next to him is an impression of a head on a pillow where the townspeople find a single “long strand of iron-gray hair.”

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 Why do you think the author scrambled the chronological order of the story?
 What losses does Miss Emily endure in this story?
 How does Miss Emily grieve?
 How does she easily latch on to people?
 What are some examples that demonstrate how
Emily was against change?
 Many people talk about Miss Emily. What are some things that they say about her and concerning what?
 Who is the antagonist or protagonist in this story?

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
As a local news reporter, you have written a small article on the death of Emily Grierson and the haunting discovery.
 What would be title of the news article?
Try to make it interesting and gripping.
You are now a teenager who has read about the death of
Emily Grierson and the haunting discovery.
 Write a facebook status or tweet (include hashtags) about what you read.

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 A conversation with her Dad when he is forbidding her to go out with a young man
 A conversation with herself when her Dad dies
 A conversation with Homer that made her think they would marry
 The conversation with Homer that made her kill him
 The conversation with herself when she decides to keep him in a shrine (frozen in time)
 A conversation with one of her painting students and her husband when they decide not to send their daughter to have painting lessons.
 A conversation between town elders about what to do about the smell.
 A conversation between the locals concerning their reactions surrounding her death and the discovery of the grey strand of hair next to the corpse