A Rose for Emily, by WIlliam Faulkner, portrays the life of a woman from the south, during the post Civil War era, that has the incapabilities to deal with changes that occur in life. The theme that occurs many times in the short story is appearance vs. reality. Miss Emily Grierson, who is the main character in the story, believes that she still lives in the past and cannot deal with the fact that time changes the way life is supposed to be lived. She is not in touch with her community, that tries to communicate to her, so she can live a more normal, healthy lifestyle.
Emily does not grow with the times. She believes that what has been will always be. She is confronted with a tax notice that has come from the new alderman and mayor. She did not reply to the notice because years earlier she had come to an agreement with Colonel Sartoris that she no longer had to pay taxes. He had been dead for ten years."Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor-.remitted her taxes."(Faulkner 310). She thought that what he told her would hold true even after his death. The fact is that she never came to grip with his passing. This leads into the passing of her father to which she believed that he was not dead even after he had died."She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to dispose of the body."(Faulkner 312). These are two clear examples that she has a hard time in understanding change.
After much time had past it seemed that Miss Emily might have become a more coherent with life. A "Yankee" man was seen going to her house many times. The community was happy to see that she was moving on with her life. The man, Homer Barron, was from the north and seemed to be a traveling fellow. In the story though it seems that Miss Emily murders Homer.
