William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is written about the change from old South to new South and Emily refuses to accept the changes by living in her own version of reality. An analysis of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” will explain how Faulkner portrays the change in the social structure of the American South in the early twentieth century as a change from old South to new South by showing the Griersons no longer hold power, the changes in the town, and Emily’s denial to change.
In the new South the Griersons no longer hold power. Emily believes that her family still holds the power that they had in the old south, so she never payed her taxes. When the men came and asked her about her taxes, she said “See Colonel Sartoris. I have

Emily’s house is described as “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay” (451) and “an eyesore among eyesores” (451). Her house is from the old South and is outdated compared to the rest of the buildings in the town, but she refuses to change anything with the house, leaving it to decay with her. The street that her house is on “had once been our most select street” (451), but now everything has changed around her house and her house is the only thing remaining from the old South on the street. Industrialism is occurring around this time and is changing the town, but she refuses to change her house to match with the new South. On the same street as her house, “garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily’s house was left” (451). These changes on the street cause her house to look out of place, because her house is from the old South while everything else is the new South. Her town was also getting sidewalks as a part of the industrialization, which led to her meeting Homer Barron. There social changes going on around this time. One change in the town was “when the town got free postal delivery, Miss Emily refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it” (455). She refused this change, because it was causing a change to her house, which she

Meeting Homer Barron was her biggest change from her old self, because her father refused to let her be in any relationships, but she went out in public with Homer “driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable” (454). Consequently, this was only because she was living in her own reality and believed that Homer would be the one to marry her. Homer was “not a marrying man” (454) and would not marry Emily, but she refused to accept the denial of marriage from him, so she killed him to keep him with her forever. She stayed within her house to keep herself in the old South. When she told the men to see colonel Sartoris, she was not aware that “Colonel Sartoris had been dead for almost ten years” (452) at that point. She kept her house the same way it had always been and was letting it decay while she stayed in it. She refused to clean or change the house at all to preserve it in the old South. She refused to accept death of other people. When her father died, she refused the town from taking his body and burying it. She wanted to keep her father’s body with her and the town was “about to use law and force, but she broke down, and they buried her father quickly” (453). She also hid Homer’s body after she killed him. She wanted to keep him with her forever and refused to let him not marry her. She bought clothes and a bathroom set to make it appear that