The south was the victim

Question number eight of Reading and Reacting for "A Rose for Emily" suggests that Emily was a victim of the south. I couldn't disagree more. Over and over, Emily bucks the traditions of the south and those around her are forced to cope with her rogue personality. When the town was being set up for mail delivery, it would seem a source of pride to hang your new mailbox and anxiously await your first piece of important mail. To the contrary, Emily refuses to let the town hang a mailbox or numbers by her door (214). With all the pride that would accompany having a nice house, surely having an odor emanating from it would be taken care of immediately. Emily's stubbornness is so well known that the townsmen fear bringing this to her attention. Instead they take care of the problem themselves (211). Again Emily is anything but a southern belle.
Having a proper burial for ones kin would surely be tradition in the south. It would be an opportunity to bring up all of the deceased great accomplishments, even if there weren't any. This would have been a chance for Emily and her fathers name to be elevated. Again, Emily would have no part of it. Another tradition of the south was to marry within ones class and maintain "nobless oblige" (212). Emily's choice to date Homer, a day laborer was showing she was one to do her own thing and not worry about what society thought about her.
Surely a woman of this time knew to respect a man, especially a professional. Not Emily, as can be seen by how she treats the druggist; refusing to answer his question even though it was the "law"(213). Last but not least is the apparent disregard she showed for the minister. Such disregard that "he refused to go back again" (213).
Emily, over and over, refused to followed the southern traditions laid down by society before her. She made the south a victim of her.