North vs. South Symbolism in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily
This essay examines William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" (1930) through the lens of North–South symbolism. Drawing on Faulkner's Southern upbringing in Oxford, Mississippi, the paper argues that Miss Emily Grierson embodies the Old South — its agrarian gentility, stubborn resistance to change, and post-Civil War decline — while her lover, Homer Barron, represents the Northern presence that disrupted Southern life. The essay traces specific textual details to support this reading, considers Faulkner's own ambivalent statements about intentional symbolism, and concludes that whether conscious or not, the allegorical dimensions of the story emerge clearly from the historical and biographical context of its creation.
- Faulkner's Southern Roots and Historical Context: Faulkner's biography and the post-Civil War South
- Emily Grierson as Symbol of the Old South: Emily's traits mirroring Old South decline
- Homer Barron and the Northern Presence: Homer as Northern symbol and affair's meaning
- Faulkner's Own View of the Symbolism: Faulkner's ambiguous denial of intentional allegory
- Conclusion: Thesis restated; symbolism affirmed despite denial
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What makes this paper effective
- The essay grounds its literary argument in historical context, explaining the post-Civil War South before applying that background to character analysis, which gives the symbolism reading a convincing foundation.
- It uses direct textual quotations throughout to support each claim about Emily's character, rather than relying on paraphrase alone.
- The paper acknowledges and fairly presents a counterargument — Faulkner's own denial of intentional symbolism — before resolving it in favor of the thesis, demonstrating critical balance.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates allegorical reading as an interpretive method: it systematically maps characters and plot events onto a historical framework (the North–South divide) and supports each correspondence with quoted evidence from the primary text. This is a useful model for literary analysis essays that argue a thematic or symbolic thesis.
Structure breakdown
The essay opens with a biographical introduction establishing Faulkner's Southern context, then devotes the bulk of its analysis to Emily Grierson's parallels with the Old South, followed by a shorter treatment of Homer Barron's Northern symbolism. A penultimate paragraph addresses Faulkner's own ambiguous comments on the allegory, and a conclusion restates the thesis. The Works Cited follows MLA format.
Faulkner's Southern Roots and Historical Context
William Faulkner was born, raised, and wrote in the South, and his deep Southern roots are evident throughout his fiction. One of the earliest nationally published examples of this work 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 brief, his connection with the North is unmistakable. Miss Emily's portrayal is more subtle in some respects but mirrors the Old South in a number of significant ways.
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 raised there as a member of an old Southern family and wrote most of his works on a farm in Oxford (Nobel Media AB, 2012). He spent his life creating characters that represented "the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South" (Nobel Media AB, 2012). Faulkner himself 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 the 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 through hard economic realities and Northern control of the region. The destruction of slavery dismantled the plantation system and erased many cultural practices of the Old South. The South attempted to preserve the old ways — including elements of its labor system — through various means; however, Congress reinstated military rule in the South, and a compromise labor system was created that was "part compromise" and "part tragedy," leaving millions of post-Civil War Southerners poor and hopeless (Beck, Frandsen, & Randall, 2009, p. 16).
Works Cited
Beck, J., Frandsen, W., & Randall, A. (2009). Southern culture: An introduction, 2nd edition. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
Faulkner, W. (2012). Selected short stories. New York, NY: Modern Library.
Gwynn, F.L., & Blotner, J.L. (1995). Faulkner in the university. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia Press.
Nobel Media AB. (2012). William Faulkner — Biography. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html
Padgett, J.B. (2006). A rose for Emily. Retrieved October 12, 2012, from
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