DEATH OF THE
GRIERSONS. Certainly, the death of, first, Emily's father and, later,
her own death spelled the end of another chapter of Jefferson's history. Emily's father
was an aristocrat of the town, and when she died, it became the end of the once
prominent line. Their deaths serve as a symbol of the slow death of the Old
South.
THE TAXES. When a delegation tried to
collect taxes from Miss Emily, she explained that her family's debt had been remitted
into "perpetuity." It was Colonel Sartoris' way of honoring a man who had been an
important part of the town. The delegation, representing the "new generation, with its
more modern ideas," symbolizes the New South; their blatant disregard of the old
agreement shows both a lack of respect for the past ways and Southern womanhood. The
unchivalrous act of trying to collect a debt from a penniless spinster so soon after the
death of her father shows a completely new shift in
thinking.
ARISTOCRATIC DECADENCE. The New South
did not look fondly upon many ways of the past. The old Southern aristocracy were above
many rules of the common man, and indiscretions and eccentricities of the ruling class
were routinely overlooked. Miss Emily's flirtation with Homer Barron and her appearance
with him, unescorted, on Sundays would have not been questioned a half century before.
But, Christian morals and a more conservative view condemned her actions. Her inability
to give up her father's corpse would have been considered merely odd behavior in
ante-bellum days; but it was a shocking act of mental instability to the younger
generation of Jefferson.
Friday, July 10, 2015
What three events represent the fall of the Old South and emergence of the New South, i.e. struggle for dominance, in "A Rose for Emily"?I would...
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