Several lessons can be learned from the events that unfold
in William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." Foremost is the need to grow and change with
the times, something that Emily is never able to understand. Throughout the story, she
stands defiantly as a symbol of the Old South and its unwillingness to accept modern
change. Another lesson to be learned is that you cannot force love upon a man who is not
willing to reciprocate. Emily's infatuation with Homer Barron does not receive the same
response from the well-travelled Yankee construction foreman, who prefers the company of
men and who has no apparent desire to settle down, at least with Miss Emily. Yet another
lesson is found in Emily's haughty attitude toward her neighbors: She has no friends,
and in her later years, she lives and dies alone. Her desire to maintain her
aristocratic standing in the community--one that has long since disappeared as new
generations appear in Jefferson--only distances herself from others, leaving her as
a
... fallen
monument... a sort of hereditary obligation upon the
town.
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