Analysis Of The Southern Ideal In William Faulkner's A Rose For Emily

Death and Decay of the Southern Ideal In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily" the reader is introduced to the small, post-civil war town, of Jefferson, Mississippi. Jefferson, while fictional, embodies the erosion of Southern ideals and beliefs dating back to pre-civil war Mississippi. The encroachment of the New South is echoed in the mussing of the narrator, who represents the community of Jefferson as he reminisces about the central character in the story, Miss. Emily Grierson. The story, while not told in chronological order, takes place over several generations. "A Rose for Emily", like so many of Faulkner's other works, has a central theme found with the conflict between the old and new, in his home state of Mississippi.