A Rose For Emily By William Faulkner: Literary Analysis

In, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the author spins his story between past and present in a small southern town torn between its former traditional ways and new modern designs. He tells his story of Emily Grierson through memories of the past transitioning between reality and remembrance. Although most of the townspeople are embracing the idea of new technology, there is one specific person holding on to traditions in the past, Emily. Faulkner has shed a light on the difficulty between transitioning into a new present time. The author shows us just how hard it can be to leave the past behind us, and accept new ways. The extreme changes taking place in this aged southern town is what makes Emily go insane. She is simply an elderly woman stuck in her ways, but teaches her readers a deeper life lesson of adapting to new ways.

Right away we as readers know that this short story is told through memory. He tells Emily’s entire life story in just a few short pages stretching time and remembrance. It is important that Faulkner starts off with Emily’s funeral because he ends with it as well in the form of a flashback. The author shows us Emily as a young woman living with her manipulative father, this shows the reader what it was like for Emily growing up. Faulkner shows us Emily as an elderly woman and all the changes she and the town have undergone. By showing us both the past and the present, the changes between the two become emphasized. He proves to his readers that even though Emily says firm in her ways, time continues on without