Rose for Emily

The morals of human beings do not always lie in the better welfare of others. People can be cruel to each other when in dislike of someone or even jealous of them.  The most common of actions to happen is the spread of gossip.  Gossip consists of fictitious stories jumping from one mouth to another.  These stories can sometimes be the cruelest of stories or plain unbelievable.  In small towns, where everybody knows everybody, gossip is more than alive, it is part of the community.

Take the life of Miss Emily of Grierson for example.  A woman of noble and prestigious blood, who never had the intent of hurting anyone or looked for any trouble.  Although this is who Miss Emily was, her neighbors did not see her as this person.  She was the talk of the town.  Everything Miss Emily did sent her town into whispers.  The town looked at her family to uphold noblesse oblige and see themselves as better than everyone else.  In fact, they praised when her father died because then were able to finally have pity on her and see her as a human.

Once the whispering starting, the town began to see less of Miss Emily, because she did not want the attention she so often received when she did go out.  Such as the time she went to purchase arsenic to rid her house of mice.  The townspeople were sure she would kill herself instead.  

The only time the town showed any delight for her was when she met her beloved, of whom they took to as a homosexual and believed would soon walk out on her.  They had hope for her while pitying her at the same time.  

The oxymoronic behavior drove Miss Emily to keep herself locked away in her home, never to be judged in the eye of the public or the root of the ever spreading gossip.