A Horror Story

I think “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is very much a horror story, as it contains all the elements that a horror story ought to have. Some of the most important elements in a horror story are of course the diction and plot. The right uses of words successfully builds up the suspense and nervousness. The right organization of the plot allows the reader to feel suspicious all along, and then still get surprised by the ending of the horror story. I think a surprising ending is also an essential element of a horror story. I was very surprised by the weird and chilling ending in “A Rose for Emily”. I suspected that something dead is inside the house, but I never suspected that it’s a dead person. I think there is a big difference between something scary and something that inspires a sense of horror. I think that “something scary” are mostly things that would be scary if it happened in real life (but will most likely not), but not really scary when you read it; for example, a character meeting a monster is not scary when we read it, but if we would be scared if we actually met a monster in real life. “Something that inspires a sense of horror” in horror stories are usually things that are really terrible that we never imagined existed, but could actually happen in real life. I think that is the case in “A Rose for Emily”. I never imagined someone would kill a person, and then keep that person’s corpse inside her room for more than ten years. Even though that’s a really crazy thing, it’s still possible that it will happen in real life, because we never know what some mentally disturbed people can do.