The 1930 story "A Rose For Emily" by William Faulkner is the story of a women who was traumatized by the way her father raised her and the effects of his overprotective and strict mentality. When Emily is able to love someone due to the death of her father. She is obsessed with her lover and refuses to leave him; even after his death, she sleeps next to his corpse. Faulkner strongly emphasizes the idea that sometimes people can't let go of the past. Setting and symbolism are two literary elements that help express this idea in "A Rose For Emily." .
Symbolism is an important element in the story for bringing out the theme of past and present. The town's folk would be the present and Miss Emily would be the past. As the town moves on, Emily stays in the past. In the beginning of the story, the first sign of imagery would be when the town's people express Emily as being there fallen monument. When Emily dies, she is looked upon as a statue of remembrance. Emily reminds the people of the town how things used to be back in the older days. Now she has fallen and will be forgotten, thus the quote "fallen monument." Another sentence, which shows imagery, is when her house is being described as having once been white (the color of youth, innocence and purity), but now decayed. The house stands between the cotton wagons, which would be the past, and the gasoline pumps, which would be the present; as described, the house is an "eyesore among eyesores." Her house very much shows her traits as a person; both physical and mental. The tarnished gold head on her black cane is the one reminder of her upper class position of past years. The hidden watch hanging from her neck but hidden under her belt is symbolic of her living in the past. .