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Emily Grierson Compare The Old South To The New South

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In this story Faulkner uses the life of the main character Emily Grierson to compare the old south to the new south. Faulkner uses a “we-narrator” to tell the story so that it is representing the entire community when the narrator speaks. Emily represents the old south in the fact that her dad kept her closed off from the rest of the world for thirty years. He would not allow her to go out with anyone and if anyone came to take her out he would send them away. After years of solitude it was like she was there in town, but separated from the town at the same time. Emily did not even pay taxes like other members of the community did. When the townspeople complained about this and sent people to her house she was not happy about it. ‘Her voice was dry and cold. "I have no taxes in …show more content…

She would not listen to them.” Miss Emily was the only one in the entire town that refused a mailbox attached to her door or metal numbers. Miss Emily did not like change and in her mind, she always had a choice because the authorities of the city always allowed her to make her own choices. It really upset the people of Jefferson; after her dad died; when she got a boyfriend named Homer Baron. He was a yankee and that was post-civil war times when the north was more industrialized and the south was more of a farming community. Emily knows how the people in the town stare and talk about her dating Homer and she does not care. Emily likes to hold on to the past and considering how she was brought up she cannot let Homer go when he states that their relationship is coming to an end. She decides she will hold on to him anyway she can. She inds up killing Homer and keeps him in the house with her. People complain of the smell but the townspeople will not confront her. Instead they send men from the town to put lime around her house. “So, the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars,

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Emily was growing old. Her hair was shortening and turning gray. Soon after realizing that “Homer was not the marrying man” and that he would much rather spend his time with young male mates, Emily decided to retaliate. In order to not lose what she thought was the love of her life, Emily went down to the nearest drug store and bought some rat poison and gave it to Homer. Homer died and Emily kept his body in the upstairs room where no one would dare to go.

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1217 Words | 5 Pages

Miss Emily comes from an old wealthy line of family in the deep south. Faulkner story is highly symbolic, enhancing miss Emily’s values and character. “Miss Emily is described as a fallen monument to the chivalric American South”(Allmon). Faulkner uses the setting of the story to show the emotional state of Emily. The female-male relationship between Emily and her father is strict, oppressive, and controlling; Their relationship has a major impact on Emily’s character Throughout the short story.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

Not only that, as Homer becomes a popular figure in town and is seen taking Emily on buggy rides on Sunday afternoons, it scandalizes the town and increases the condescension and pity they have for Emily. They feel that she is forgetting her family pride and becoming involved with a man beneath her station. Even though Emily is from the high class family, it does not mean that she is living up to the pleasant lifestyle. As a matter of fact, she is actually living a gloomy and desolate life, which is essentially the opposite lifestyle expected for Emily's rank in society by the townspeople. Although Emily once represented a great southern tradition centering on the landed gentry with their vast holdings and considerable resources, Emily's legacy has devolved, making her more a duty and an obligation than a romanticized vestige of a dying order.

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1174 Words | 5 Pages

After Emily’s father died she refused to pay taxes in her city. The sheriff made several attempts to collect and she just plainly refused. Also, she refused to allow them to put up numbers to her house when federal mail service was requiring it. Then, she went to the store to buy a poison and by law it cannot be sold without a reason; however, she did not give the explanation and gave the cashier a hostile stare which led him to sell it without question. Similarly, Sylvia is a young student, but does not like Miss Moore, who is a volunteer to assist educating kids on the weekends.

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780 Words | 4 Pages

Miss Emily’s Reconstruction The short story A Rose for Emily is about a small town in Mississippi that is struggling to get over there racist and antiquated ideals and turn towards more progressive thinking. This grows seemingly harder with Miss Emily being the outlier of their community but also being a reminder of the town’s dark history. Throughout A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, Miss Emily becomes an expression for the antebellum period and the South’s resistance to progress during Reconstruction. He also uses a female character for this story to bring up the issue of women’s rights during this era and how they were enslaved to conformity and arbitrary standards of the time.

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337 Words | 2 Pages

The dust which is seen throughout Miss Emily’s house is a fitting accompaniment to the lost lives within the house. When the town officials arrive to try to come to an agreement concerning Emily’s annual tax payment, the house smells

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306 Words | 2 Pages

From the very beginning we learn that Miss Emily Grierson did not go out of her house much, or if she did she did not have a lot of people over because everyone wanted to see inside her house when she died. The narrator makes the house sound like the yard is cluttered with years of historical items. We start getting an insight of Miss Emily’s life now she was traditional and there for a long time in that town. She would not accept charity from anyone even though her father made donations to the city and they were just trying to pay back his kindness. When the next generation comes in modern ideas also come in Miss Emily gets a tax notice, next a formal letter, then a letter from the mayor.

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926 Words | 4 Pages

Faulkner says, Emily buys Arsenic from the druggist and the next day Homer is seen entering her home and that was the last time anyone ever saw him or Emily for some time. No one but the negro servant left the house. (Faulkner 455) Emily kills Homer because she doesn’t want him to leave her. If he’s dead, he can’t run

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691 Words | 3 Pages

When her father died we can see that she is controlling of him and would not release the body for burial. After she loses her father, it is as if she loses her sense of reality. It is as if maybe the old white house is beginning to represent the attitude and ways of Emily. The house is old, dark, and very dusty just as the townspeople think Emily is. Homer Barron is a construction worker from New York.

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584 Words | 3 Pages

William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.

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121 Words | 1 Pages

Miss Emily Grierson was raised pre-civil war, so she never knew anything other than living without responsibilities. She was raised by her father who fought in the war. Their family name was known by many as being a well-respected name. They had a big house that I feel represents Emilys

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543 Words | 3 Pages

The Civil War took place in 1861-1865. Since Emily was raised in the South, her family had the same values and morals of the confederate side. Emily’s family was very wealthy and owned a beautiful home. Unfortunately, after the South lost the Civil War they

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1078 Words | 5 Pages

The titled short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is set in the post-civil war era in a southern town named Jefferson. The story discusses the themes of race and social class through the characters, Tobe and Miss Emily. Miss Emily Grierson is a distinguished woman in southern society while Tobe is her black manservant. Tobe stays with Miss Emily until her death and suddenly disappears afterwards because their relationship is a remnant of the race relationship in the antebellum South: master and slave. He no longer has any obligations to stay in Jefferson because his duty to Miss Emily is no longer needed since she died.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

Miss Emily suffered from illnesses that even the town noticed, but out of a sense of “duty” they never offered to

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534 Words | 3 Pages

When her father died she lost everyone that mattered to her. She eventually started dating people and getting back out into the world again. She had met Homer whom she had hoped to marry one day. The towns people were worried because he was a northerner and a Yankee therefore they tried to get her to stop seeing him, but they soon learned Homer was more interested in living the life of a single guy. When Emily learned of this she went to the drug store to buy arsenic, she wanted to ensure Homer did not leave her. She seemed to have a problem with people leaving her; she never was happy.

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