A Rose For Emily Change Analysis

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In William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, the main character Emily Grierson struggles with the concept of change. Throughout the story, Emily faces many radical changes in her life. In the first section, the narrator describes her house as the last visible proof of a lost era. As the town around her changes, her house and customs remain the same. The narrator refers to Emily herself as a tradition. The town mayor at the time, Colonel Sartoris, decides to suspend Emily’s tax responsibilities after her father’s death, claiming that her father had once left the town a significant amount of money. However, after a new mayor takes over, the Board of Alderman make several unsuccessful attempts to reinstate her tax responsibility. The narrator then explains that, after refusing to pay taxes once again and being abandoned by her husband-to-be, the townspeople begin to smell an odd odor coming from the house. …show more content…

Emily begins to have an affair with a contractor, Homer Barron, who she is criticized for being with due to his lower status. During this affair she purchases arsenic, raising concerns that she is suicidal. When Homer returns to Emily’s home, he never comes out again. The house remains unoccupied except for Emily and her servant until her death. After she dies, the townspeople come to her house to honor her memory only to find a room that seems to be preserved in a past time. Wedding attire is in the room and Homer’s dead and decaying body lays stretched out on the bed, with an indention and Emily’s hair on the pillow next to him. Throughout the entire story, Emily struggles with change and not being in control; the main theme of A Rose for Emily is the concept of tradition versus change, and how change can disrupt traditions and cause people like Emily to go to extreme measures to retain

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