old ways in modern life

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 84). In the story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the main character Emily is set in the old ways while her town is living in a modern lifestyle. Faulkner uses characterization and symbolism to show the struggle between old fashioned and modern ways of living. Emily’s refusal to accept new modern ways leads to her even more reclusive lifestyle and her twisted ideas of love. Through Faulkner’s description of the house and the character Emily, he shows how difficult it can be when ideas are pushed on people. The story shows the struggle between wanting to live in an old fashioned way and having modern life style ideas pushed onto you. Emily shows characterization in many ways throughout the story “A Rose for Emily”. Keeping her head held up in the air like she was better than everyone else in town and “her thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishing into her belt” (Faulkner 85). Emily refuses to let her fellow neighbors make her change to a modern lifestyle. Another example of when Emily tries to show that she is better than everyone else is when they enter her home, and she makes them stand the whole time even though she had enough places for them to be seated. After being alone for over thirty years, Emily finally met someone that she loved and wanted to be with. So in order to ensure that her love Homer Barron would stay with her for the rest of her life and never leave, she poisoned him with arsenic and kept him locked up in her room upstairs. Even though Emily knew that Homer was dead, she still slept by his side every night. Another way that Emily shows she still lives in her southern was is that she has a black slave that she has do everything for her. She also feels that she still doesn’t have to pay any taxes because when her father was alive he loaned the town money and had that as a repayment for her taxes.