After the Civil War, many Confederate soldiers returned home and founded nothing and many had no place to stay. Many people that God was punishing them for all the sins that they had done to the blacks. But many other Southerners refuse to accept that they were defeated by the Union. Instead, they thought that God spared them for something more important. So, they thought of the war as a lost cause and they interpreted it as a stepping stone to the South’s salvation. This is the feeling in Mississippi where ” A Rose for Emily,” takes place.
In, ” A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily portrays the Old South, not wanting to give up on the good old times. As the people of Jefferson portrays how the South wants to move on to bigger and better things. Miss Emily Grierson lives in the pasted, and she did not want ot change at all. As time and things change, Miss Emily stayed the same. She was so much like the Old South that she had a black as a servant. Many people thought of her as,” a tradition, a duty, and a care; sort of hereditary obligation upon the town. “(Faulkner 73) That is why she did not have to pay any taxes.
The Mayor of Jefferson in 1894, Colonel Satoris declared that she did not have to pay taxes. But as time pass and new generations of mayors came they tried to maker pay her taxes. Miss Emily refuse, she says, “I have no taxes in Jefferson. “(Faulkner 73) This how Miss Emily impersonate the Old South. She refuses to forget about the past as did the South and does not want to accept the fact that things are changing. After the defeat of the South in the Civil War, many people would not accept the changes that comes with defeat. Many people would fight to preserve as much of their past in the South as the victors of the North would allow.
This is how Miss Emily felt when her father and Homer died. She did not want to accept the fact that her father was dead, and when the ladies tried to come to condole her, she said ” her father was not dead. “(Faulkner 75) Another way she tried to sustain the past was when Homer died. After Homer death, instead of her burying him and moving on with her life, she tried to preserve him as well. She kept his body up stairs in a room and for years slept with Homer’s body. Miss Emily was trying to remember the good times that Homer and her had and did not want to give that up.