A Rose For Emily South Essay

In the Novel “A Rose For Emily,” Faulkner narrates on how the south is refusing to accept the evolving society. Faulkner is critical of the south wanting to retain its traditional ways, and describes how it may die a lonely, irrational death like Emily if it does not conform to the inevitable change. In “A Rose For Emily,” the south as a region has old tradition and history. Faulkner is particularly interested in narrating about the moral connections of its history. The south had just come out from the civil war and reconstruction, and were trying to rid of its bad reputation of slavery. With all of this bad history, the people of the south finally realized that conforming to a new and established social, economic, and political situation may be

In a once rich and reputable neighborhood, Emily’s house is now just a legacy of the once great era of the south,”Only now Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores”(Faulkner, 331). Emily’s eventually decaying house represented the last structure of the Old South as a region, it was a symbol of the crumbling Old South and the rise of the New South. Of course, the south was known for its reputation with discrimination and slavery of other races. One of the main topics of this novel is the discussion of conflict between traditional and modern thinking. Tobe, as a character, is in the novel as one of the south's “traditions.” Faulkner often refers to him as “Negro,” instead of Tobe, suggesting that Emily and the rest of the town have not solved their problems over the conflict of race and discrimination. Tobe not only acted as