The use of imagery in a short story has a great deal of effect on the impact of the story. A story with effective imagery will give the reader a clear mental picture of what is happening and enhance what the writer is trying to convey to the reader. William Faulkner exhibits excellent imagery that portrays vivid illustrations in ones mind that enhances, A Rose for Emily. The following paragraphs will demonstrate how Faulkner uses imagery to illustrate descriptive pictures of people, places and things that allow Faulkner to titillate the senses. It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street (287). Faulkner starts the story off with a mental picture of Emilys house to be an old Victorian house. It is on a street that is commercializing which makes the house stand out and appear out of place. A description of Emily discloses her similarity to the house. She looked bloated, like a body, long submerged in motionless water, and that of palled hue (288). Faulkner describes her like this so that the reader may picture a pale, older woman, who seemingly hasnt done much but eat, having no muscle tone, and clumps of fat more or less clinging to her body. She was sickly old woman. An even closer look at her face reveals her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough (288). This description enhances the mental picture of Emily even more. The overly chubby face, gives the reader a definite mental picture of an old and obese woman. Faulkners description of Homer Barron, Emilys lover, is less detailed but just as effective. He was a Yankeea big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face (290). The first picture of Homer that would come to mind would proba...
