Faulkner's A Rose for Emily - Theme of Old South vs. New South
"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house, which no one save an old manservant - a combined gardener and cook - had seen in at least ten years." This is the first sentence in William Faulkner's A Rose for Emily, in it he sets up the main cross-cultural relationship that is portrayed in this short story. Below I am going to discuss this cross-cultural relationship that Faulkner illustrates in this story and show how he illustrated it. The main cross-cultural relationship depicted is the old south vs. the new south. As pointed out above, Faulkner sets up this cross-cultural relationship in the first sentence of A Rose for Emily. In the first sentence, as with the entire short story, the old south is personified in the person of Emily Grierson and the new south in
Faulkner uses mainly the interaction of these two entities to illustrate this cross-cultural relationship. For instance, in the opening sentence of this short story we have the entire town at the scene of Miss Emily's funeral, and half of it is there in reverence to a "fallen monument." The new south, the town, is fascinated with the old south. It is not that they would like to return to the way things were, but they miss the ideals and pride exhibited by Miss Emily. o the growing town of Jefferson. Jefferson is a town that has moved on from the days of slavery, and in fact has moved onto the former sight of the Grierson's plantation. During the duration of this story, sometime near the turn of the nineteenth century, this small town is in the process of becoming a growing city, complete with sidewalks and all. the men and women of the town of Jefferson. Emily is the last person alive from the era of the old so
Some common words found in the essay are:
Rose Emily, Jefferson Jefferson, Miss Emily, Homer Barron, Civil War, Emily Grierson, Jefferson Emily, Miss Emily's, cross-cultural relationship, short story, miss emily, rose emily, town jefferson, main cross-cultural relationship, main cross-cultural, south faulkner, illustrate cross-cultural, plantation owning, fallen monument, illustrate cross-cultural relationship,
Approximate Word count = 624
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)
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