Rose for Emily

             Women have always fought for equality amidst a predominately male-run society. In the late 1800s and at the turn of the century, women improved their status in society a great deal. They formed the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1890 and gained the right to vote with passing of the 19th Amendment in 1920. However, the transition from passive to active women in society was not a smooth one; many people, both men and women, did not agree with these changes. In Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, the Gierson home and Emily are symbols of the shift society undertakes, adjusting to the changing power in women from submissive to influential.
             The Giersons" home parallels Emily and what she stands for: old traditions that are deteriorating and unwelcome in a changing country. Like the house, Emily grows up in the past, a time in which women had no rights and were under the complete control of the men in their lives. In the beginning, the house is "white"(75) , symbolizing Emily's purity and innocence, a result of her sheltered and controlled life. However, the house, and patriarchal ideology it stands for, becomes "an eyesore among eyesores"(75) in the neighborhood, as "the next generation, with it more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen-(75). The house contrasts the newer community, Emily contrasts the younger community, and the old beliefs that the house and Emily represent contrast the more liberal community. .
             The Giersons" home represents a shift from old to new by having both past and present qualities. It physically contrasts with the newer community, showing how the old belief of passive women that the house stands for is being pushed out by the new ideals of stronger, more independent women. The house is old-fashioned and even decaying, having a "style of the [eighteen-] seventies"(75) that "encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood"(75).