Change In Williams Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

In Williams Faulkner 's ‘A Rose for Emily’, a local narrator provides a very personally nuanced and chronologically disjoined narrative. Through this lens Faulkner uses the imagery and symbols of the Grierson home, Emily as a monument, Homer’s body, in “A Rose for Emily” to convey the theme of change vs. decay, especially as it relates to the American South and its traditions. Although he describes particular individuals within Jefferson (Miss Emily, the older men and ladies, the town leaders), he seems to be using them as symbols for the larger issues that the South was facing at the turn of the twentieth century. This paper discusses how Faulkner uses imagery and metaphor to highlight on the necessity of adaptation in changing times. This

Significantly, in Part 4, Faulkner uses Homer Barron 's corpse rotting in a room filled with "invisible dry dust" as a symbol; Emily thought of Homer like a rose, one she expected to endure long after being picked, even after his body was corrupted by the decay of time. Hence, ‘A Rose for Emily’. Notably, Faulkner uses profound imagery to summon a decrepit atmosphere, as the theme is reiterated: accept it or not, change and decay are inevitable. This change Emily always refuses, as we have seen through her father’s death, in leaving the home untouched, and certainly through her murder of
Homer to allow their relationship to continue. In this case, Emily attempts to freeze time
The Theme of Change vs Decay in ‘A Rose for Emily’ by Faulkner by not acknowledging the death of her father and prospective abandonment by her suitor. Remarkably, through Emily’s desire to freeze time Faulkner metaphorically portrays how southern citizens attempt to preserve their past and resist change and inevitable decay of old ways. It is important to realize the symbolism of the invading
"violence of breaking down the door" into Homer 's room after Emily’s death: the new has invaded the old, and the now dead thing (symbolic of tradition) appears