Rose

Emily is the title character in William Faulkner’s Gothic 1930 short story, “A Rose for Emily”. Emily is the classic ante-bellum Southern left-over spinster from a family fallen on hard times. Under the dominance of her cruel father, she is not allowed to pursue her own dreams of love and independence. When the old man dies, Emily goes so far as to allow a lower class man, Homer, to court her, much to the surprise of the townspeople. One day Homer disappears; Emily retreats even further into her musty home and her solitude, ever haughty and aloof, and it is not until her death that her awful secret is revealed.

Rose of Sharon Joad Rivers is a character in John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel of the Great Depression, The Grapes of Wrath, which took several literary prizes and contributed to its author winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. It was made into an acclaimed film version in 1940, and was adapted to various other media over the years. A powerful and poignant tale of the migration of poor sharecroppers from the Dust Bowl seeking a future in California, the book traces the story of the Joad family on their journey. Rose of Sharon is the high-spirited teen-aged daughter who is pregnant; she dreams of an idealized life in California with her husband, a life of pretty clothes, movies and a happy new baby. Still young and self-centered, she grudgingly pitches in with the chores. As the family progresses on its increasingly discouraging journey, and her husband abandons her, Rose of Sharon begins to mature into her womanhood, quietly nurturing the child within and maintaining a composure beyond her years. Insisting upon helping the family pick cotton at one of their stops, she goes into labor and delivers a stillborn child. Although heartbroken, although barraged with the inequities of life at so young an age, although battered by fate, Rose of Sharon rises magnificently to the circumstances and performs a life-giving act of selflessness that gives meaning and hope to her life and that of others.