William Faulkner-A Rose for Emily

William Faulkner
A Rose for Emily

That night the Board of Aldermen met-three graybeards and one younger man, a member of the rising generation.
“It’s simple enough, “he said. Send her word to have her place cleaned up. Give her a certain time to do it in, and if she don’t…”
“Dammit, sir, ‘Judge Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face of something bad?” (Faulkner, 406)

Throughout the short story, I noticed that there was a struggle between two generations. The struggle was clear throughout the book starting from when they claimed she owed taxes. She was not paying based on past agreements her father had with past men that were in power. She held on to things, while others wanted her to let go and move on. In a way it is good to hold on tradition without it we would not be where we are today. There was numerous amounts of time where I believe her beliefs clashed with the newer generation, from the time when the men wanted to go into her house and let her know about the smell in her house but they wanted to do it I a not so respectful way but Judge Stevens wouldn’t let them, he wanted them to show some respect to the lady. Another time is the fact that she when to the druggist and bought rat poison. I believe that this in fact is one clear fact of how she held on to tradition, or let just say “old times”. I have come to believe that she used this rat poison to kill Homer, but my argument is the fact that now a day you wanted see too many killings do to somebody poisoning you. In this generation you would probably see somebody shooting you, or stabbing you, or anything put poison. She lived an odd lifestyle different from the generation that ruled over the town, I was similar to the conservative versus the liberal, who comes out the winner.