North vs. South Symbolism in Faulkner's A Rose for Emily
A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner's work grew from his old Southern roots. A Rose for Emily is a good example of this. The Old South was agrarian, built on plantation life and dedicated to a fading, archaic tradition of gentility. The Civil War destroyed the old way of life and left Southerners poor and hopeless. Emily Grierson mirrors all those qualities. Her affair with Homer, who clearly represents the North, is a strange mixture of two very different people. Worse yet, years after Homer is apparently gone, the town discovers that he has been dead for years, apparently murdered by Emily, who lay down beside his corpse. In this way, Faulkner shows the strange relationship between the North and South, and possibly the South's desired revenge against the North. Faulkner, himself, denied yet supported that possibility. Despite Faulkner's denial, the North/South symbolism in the story seems clear.
Rose for Emily for Some People, Letting
For some people, letting go of the past is particularly difficult, whether they are holding on because their past was spectacular and wonderful, or, as in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the past is all they have.