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What Is The Change In A Rose For Emily Grierson's Life

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As time moves forward, we can do nothing but change with time. How can one possibly dwell in the past and live in the present? In the short story, “A Rose for Emily,” by William Faulkner, the author describes Emily Grierson as someone who is reluctant to face reality. She lives a depressing and solitary life after her well-known and honorable father deceased. Although her father’s death had changed her life, Emily is unable to let go of the past and is unwilling to accept any form of change. When her father passed away, Emily was in the state of denial. She didn’t believe her father was dead. The day after his death, the townspeople gathered at her house to show sympathy and “Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face.” She showed no signs of sorrow and “she …show more content…

The house, which once used to be very elegant, was decorated in the style of the seventies and now became an unpleasant sight to the neighborhood. Her house was the only house left on the block “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps.” The house symbolizes Emily’s disinclination to modernize. Another instance when Emily showed resistance to change is when the town developed free postal delivery. Emily “refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it.” The town was advancing with new ideas and as the next generation took charge, they required everyone to pay taxes, even Emily. Still rooted in the past, Emily tells them to go see Colonel Sartoris who relieved her from paying taxes. It is stated that Colonel Sartoris died ten years ago but Emily didn’t accept that. She insisted that they go talk to the Colonel. These were new changes in society that Emily was not accustomed to. She was still trying to hold on to her traditions and old habits even though society viewed them as unpopular and

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