Resistance To Change In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

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William Faulkner's short story, A Rose for Emily, represents many common themes that is expressed by Emily and her county. The four themes that are represented in the short story are resistance to change, loneliness, Old vs. New South, and Gossip. The theme I will be discussing is resistance to change that is expressed by Emily's behavior in sections I and II. These two sections consist of the main 3 events that expresses Emily's outlook and feeling towards change. Emily is considered to be headstrong, usually resisting to change if it does not appease her. During section I, Faulkner tells the reader through the narration of towns people that Colonel Startois relieved Emily of her taxes due to the death of her father. Colonel Startois know that Emily would not accept charity since she belongs to an aristocratic family so he lied and told her that he was repaying her dad. This is a sub-example that leads to the main example, exemplifying how Emily's customs affects her outlook on life. About a decade later from her remittence, Emily receives a tax notice and ignores it since she is remitted from her taxes. Sadly this could not be …show more content…
She refused to admit that her father was dead and that she needed to bury him. This is a great example of how Emily resists to except the present and only except what she knows and what she posses. As an effect of not disposing her father's corpse at proper term, the minister had to almost enforce the law after three days of his body sitting in the house but she gave him up after being threaten with so. Her father was the only man figure that she had in her life since her dad put her on such a high pedestal all of her life. This is also the reason why Emily does not have any friends and barely leaves out of her house. With this Emily will suffer many changes in her life style that she will never except leading to very odd consequences in the