Rose for Emily William Faulkner Was Born,

¶ … Rose for Emily

William Faulkner was born, raised and wrote in the South and his old Southern roots are shown in his writing. One of the earliest nationally published examples of this writing is A Rose for Emily. In this short story, Emily represents the South while her lover, Homer Barron, represents the North. Though Homer's description is short, his connection with the North is obvious. Miss Emily's long description is more subtle in some ways but mirrors the Old South in a number of aspects.

The work of William Faulkner (1897 -- 1962) grew from his Southern roots. Born in Oxford, Mississippi only 32 years after the Civil War, Faulkner was also raised in Oxford as a member of an old Southern family and wrote most of his works on a farm in Oxford (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Faulkner spent his life creating characters that represented "the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South" (Nobel Media AB, 2012). In fact, Faulkner stated, "…no man is himself, he's the sum of his past…" (Gwynn & Blotner, 1995, p. 48).

It is within this context that Faulkner wrote his first short story for national magazine publication, A Rose for Emily, published on April 30, 1930 in "Forum" (Padgett, 2006). The main character, Miss Emily Grierson, apparently represents the Old South. The Old South of pre-Civil War years was an agrarian society built on a plantation system that highly valued adherence to a fading, archaic tradition of gentility. The Civil War created upheaval in the South's agrarian culture and effectively destroyed the old way of life by hard economic realities and Northern control of the South. The destruction of slavery destroyed the plantation system and many cultural ways of the Old South. The South attempted keep the old ways, including slavery by trickery; however, Congress reinstated military rule in the South and a compromise labor system was created that "part compromise" and "part tragedy" that left millions of post-Civil War Southerners poor and hopeless (Beck, Frandsen, & Randall, 2009, p. 16).

Emily Grierson's life mirrored the Old South and post-Civil War South in that she went from being an old-fashioned upper class person to a poor recluse who clung to old ways and was "tragic and serene" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 52). She came from the distinguished Grierson family but lived in an increasingly seedy "house filled with dust and shadows" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57) in Jefferson, she was "a tradition, a duty, and a care" for the town (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48), and wrote to the Mayor "on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48). With stubbornness and dignity, she beat the town on taxes (Faulkner, 2012, p. 48), forced the druggist to give her arsenic without giving him the legally-required reason (Faulkner, 2012, p. 54), refused to stop seeing her boyfriend despite the Baptist Minister's visit to her house (Faulkner, 2012, p. 55), and refused to allow a mailbox on her house when mail delivery became a free service (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57). She also relied on an old way of earning money when she was 40 by giving lessons in china-painting (Faulkner, 2012, p. 56). However, the new generation stopped going to her or sending their children for those old-fashioned lessons (Faulkner, 2012, p. 56). Finally, despite becoming a pauper, "…she passed from generation to generation -- dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 57), carrying "her head high enough -- even when we believed that she was fallen. It was as if she demanded more than ever the recognition of her dignity as the last Grierson" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 53). Emily and her life show parallels with the genteel, stubborn, outdated decadence of the Old South and poor hopelessness and perhaps madness of the post-Civil War South.

In contrast to Emily Grierson, her lover, Homer Barron was called a Yankee foreman, representing the North as a "big, dark, ready man" (Faulkner, 2012, p. 52). Some thought he was beneath her socially; however, others hoped he would marry her. Years after he disappeared, she apparently murdered him, kept him long after he rotted and lay down next to his corpse, leaving a telltale gray strand of her hair on the pillow next to his (Faulkner, 2012, p. 59). This appears to be the South's hoped-for revenge on the North for the devastating effects of the Civil War. In these ways, Emily represents the Old and post-Civil War South, Homer represents the North and the description of their love affair shows the relationship between the North and the South.

It should be noted that Faulkner, himself, denied that this was the case. He stated that any symbolism of the North and South in the story was incidental. However, Faulkner also acknowledged that a man is the sum of his past and that "this struggle between the South and the North could have been a part of my background, my experience, without me knowing it" (Gwynn & Blotner, 1995, pp. 47-8). In sum, Faulkner rejected the idea that the story represented the North and South but also supported it with his statements.