Emily Grierson Living in the Past in William Faulkners A...

Emily Grierson Living in the Past in William Faulkners A Rose for Emily In A Rose for Emily, by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson seems to be living with her father in what people referred to as the old South. However, most of the story takes place after the Civil War, but Miss Emily is clearly living in the past. As critic Frederick Thum pointed out, Many people are able to survive in the present, but give little or no thought to the future, and these people usually live in the past. Such a mind is the mind of Miss Emily Grierson...(1). Miss Emilys comprehension of death, her relationship with the townspeople, and her reaction toward her taxes are clear examples that she is living in the past. At the†¦show more content†¦Since many of the members of the older generation have retired or have died, the younger generation wanted her to pay her taxes because there was nothing written down that said that she was exempt from paying them. When the younger generation asked her to pay her taxes, Emily said that Colonel Sartoris had told her she had not taxes to pay in Jefferson. The problem as that Colonel Sartoris has been dead for ten years. Even though he was dead, the Colonel had given his word, and according to traditional view, his word knew no death. It is the past pitted against the present-the past with its social decorum, the present with everything set down in the books(Rodriguez 1). Miss Emily also shows how she is living in the past when her father dies. She told everyone that came to get his body that her father was still alive, she refused to believe he was dead. However, she eventually was forced to give them his body. After her fathers death, she looked like a girl with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows-sort of tragic and serene. This suggest that she has already begun her entrance into the nether-world(Rodriguez 1). The people did not know what to make of Emily. 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