A Rose for Emily


To understand A Rose for Emily, one must understand the environment and the setting of the story. One must realize during this time in the Deep South, as well as much of it today, the people had an immense sense of tradition and sense of duty. Knowing this sense of tradition and duty is a crucial role to understanding the story. I personally have not experienced the south and all there traditions, but I have experienced the similar traditions of small town and there environments. Everybody has to know everyone’s business and what’s going on in their lives.

Now the town had many different characters and one never really gets a sense of who is really narrating the story. So you truly get a sense of who Miss Emily is because you get the description of the whole town. The characteristics of Miss Emily seem to be an intense sense of tradition and duty. With having these senses she also seems very unwilling to change. This was shown when she was unwillingly to leave the corpse of her dead lover Homer Barron. Not only did she seclude herself from the town, but the town secluded her also, because of the harsh smell coming from her house.