Old South Vs. New South In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily
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Old South vs. New South
William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is about an older woman named Emily Grierson who, due to her ancestor’s prior arrangement has gotten away with not paying taxes on her home since her father passed away. Since Emily is a woman alone in the 1890’s she is under scrutiny from all the townspeople. Emily’s odd behaviors and holier than thou attitude, keep people away from her personal life which catches their curiosity. When Mrs. Grierson dies the townspeople are itching to see what is inside of her house. While the house is being rummaged through they find the decaying corpse of Emily’s old suitor Homer and they realize this secret is what she has been hiding. The central idea of “A Rose for Emily” is that one must…show more content… Tradition is a large part of the short story; everything about Emily Grierson is frozen in time from her looks, to her home, to her mannerisms, and her possessions. Since the story is being told from the townspeople after Emily’s death the tone is both ironic and cynical. The irony refers to the title “A Rose for Emily.” [The title] was an allegorical title; the meaning was, here was a woman who had had a tragedy, an irrevocable tragedy and nothing could be done about it, and I pitied her and this was a salute…to a woman you would hand a rose. (Cite.) Throughout Emily’s life she is faced with hardships representing the thorns on a rose, and in return she deals the same harshness out herself. Due to her father’s old southern teachings, Emily never experiences love, romance, or inclusion. The irony is important in understanding the central idea because it is read with a bit more compassion hearing the word rose, which represents love and all the romantic gestures that come with it. For Emily, however, instead of a rose to show her love, there is a corpse, which is not close to a rose at all. She cannot and will not see past what has been engraved in her mind and cannot live presently as a normal functioning member of