“A Rose for Emily” takes place in the 19th century, when the civil war has just ended. The abolishment of slavery after the civil war affected southerners crucially and was hard for them to accept. This is symbolized in Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” through Emily being unable to cope with death and modernization. Emily’s refusal to accept change invites us to contemplate that many post war Southerners had a hard time adapting to a new way of living after the civil war and people in general also cling to things that we are familiar with.
Emily is not capable of accepting the change in the form of death. After her father dies, the narrator says she “dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (par. 27). She denies burying the body, saying that her father is not dead when clearly he …show more content…
Anne Moffitt states, Homer “is not merely a reminder of the lost war, but a harbinger of the city-born structural and social changes that will certainly be more difficult to ward off than his actual person, even if the community manages to sustain some will to resist the persuasive seductions of modernization” (21). Since Homer is from North, he symbolizes northerners and their new laws against slavery. Illegalization of slavery affects southerners like Emily’s life tremendously because they built their wealth depending on slaves. She feels threatened by the new law since she loses her wealth and respect without slaves and she also loses people she can look down on. Thus, while the south as a whole had to make slavery illegal, the farmers of the south did not abide by these regulations and essentially murdered the law by forcing the slaves to stay slaves. Emily murders the symbol of modernization as if she murders the change and stops the new law and era to emerge. Both Emily and post war southerners refuse change and do not accept thing that they are not familiar
Emily is not capable of accepting the change in the form of death. After her father dies, the narrator says she “dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead” (par. 27). She denies burying the body, saying that her father is not dead when clearly he …show more content…
Anne Moffitt states, Homer “is not merely a reminder of the lost war, but a harbinger of the city-born structural and social changes that will certainly be more difficult to ward off than his actual person, even if the community manages to sustain some will to resist the persuasive seductions of modernization” (21). Since Homer is from North, he symbolizes northerners and their new laws against slavery. Illegalization of slavery affects southerners like Emily’s life tremendously because they built their wealth depending on slaves. She feels threatened by the new law since she loses her wealth and respect without slaves and she also loses people she can look down on. Thus, while the south as a whole had to make slavery illegal, the farmers of the south did not abide by these regulations and essentially murdered the law by forcing the slaves to stay slaves. Emily murders the symbol of modernization as if she murders the change and stops the new law and era to emerge. Both Emily and post war southerners refuse change and do not accept thing that they are not familiar