William Faulkner experienced firsthand how the South desperately tries to hold onto the past. And that kind of refusal for change is seen in “A Rose for Emily”. According to the biography of Faulkner from the Nobel Peace Prize website most of Faulkner’s works have the central “theme [of] the decay of the old South”. And most of his works are all connected through being set in the made-up county of Yoknapatawpha. Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is also set in this county and it similarly deals with a central theme of the fall of the old South. “A Rose for Emily” portrays the deep-seated fear of change and the uncertainty one has for the unknown through making Emily an embodiment of the South’s refusal to accept that it must change after the Civil War.
Change is something that is ever present. The world is constantly changing and it isn’t always the easiest changes that happen. But what is even …show more content…
The narrator says “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Faulkner 404), and “a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (Faulkner 404). Emily’s house along with everything in it is a monument of the past. That is also why dust plays a role in understanding this story. Dust covers everything that hasn’t changed. The repeated mention of dust throughout the story, especially at the end when dust is prevalent, heavily portrays the stagnant present. When they went to bust down the door, “the violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere” (Faulkner 410). Along with the fact that an “invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 410). Emily’s house has been frozen in time. The dust is a symbol of Emily and her ability to close out the outside world in order to make her own perfect
Change is something that is ever present. The world is constantly changing and it isn’t always the easiest changes that happen. But what is even …show more content…
The narrator says “lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps” (Faulkner 404), and “a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink” (Faulkner 404). Emily’s house along with everything in it is a monument of the past. That is also why dust plays a role in understanding this story. Dust covers everything that hasn’t changed. The repeated mention of dust throughout the story, especially at the end when dust is prevalent, heavily portrays the stagnant present. When they went to bust down the door, “the violence of breaking down the door seemed to fill this room with pervading dust. A thin, acrid pall as of the tomb seemed to lie everywhere” (Faulkner 410). Along with the fact that an “invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair” (Faulkner 410). Emily’s house has been frozen in time. The dust is a symbol of Emily and her ability to close out the outside world in order to make her own perfect