A Rose For Emily Analysis

A Rose for Emily appears to be a simple story that actually has a bigger meaning. Faulkner uses the characters and their actions to allude to the South’s history.

The Old Southern high society was extremely elegant. Everything about it was extravagant and impressive. However, it lost its splendor and wasn't as beautiful as before, due to evolving views and the changing times. Emily Grierson and her house show the characteristics. Emily was once very beautiful and admired, but as time went on, her appearance fell apart. She grew fat and looked “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (page ⅙). Her hair turned gray, and she was no longer admired for her beauty. Her house was once grand and the pride of the town. As the town

Sidewalks, mailboxes, and a postal service are making their way into an old-fashioned society. Most of the town accepts the changes, but Emily Grierson is a different story. She refuses all of these changes. In this way, Emily represents the OLd SOuth, while the rest of the world represents a changing American nation. The Old South stuck to its old ways while the world around it changed with the times. It was stubborn and defended its ways as the right way. The Old South kept its aristocratic attitude, along with slavery. Most of the country had abolished slavery, or were working to abolish it. But the Old South relied on slavery for its economy. The South relied on agriculture rather than turning to industry, like the rest of the world, and they were soon left behind while the world advanced without them. While the South’s values may have been relevant before, they didn’t fit in with the new world. Faulkner is saying that the Southern values were old-fashioned, and not right for the

They call the Civil War the War of Northern Aggression. They blame the North for starting the war, although history books all say the war was started when Confederate forces attacked a Northern supply ship at Fort Sumter. The South cannot face the past honestly, and neither can the townspeople in the story. They all knew what was hidden in Emily’s house, in the room above the stairs, but they all pretended to be surprised when they saw Homer’s body. They covered the smell with lime juice, and saw Emily buy the arsenic she poisoned Homer with, but they still refused to accuse her outright. The town refused to accuse her of murder because Emily was a symbol of the past, a past they all respected. Colonel Sartoris made up a story that Emily’s father loaned the town money, and allowed Emily to avoid paying her taxes. Instead of taking her house and tearing it down so they could match the rest of the modernized town, the town changed and upgraded while the house ruined the look of the town. But the town still let Emily live how she was used to living, almost like they wanted to keep a reminder of a better past. They don’t focus on how trashy it makes the town look, they instead remember how nice it was back in the day. “It was a big, squarish 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