William Faulker;s ; A Rose for Emily; tells the story of a young woman who is violated by her father;s strict mentality. After being the only man in her life Emily;s father dies and she finds it hard to let go. Emily was raised in the ante-bellum period before the Civil War. This story takes place in the Reconstruction Era after the war when the North takes control of the South.

Like her father, Miss Emily possesses a stubborn outlook towards life and refuses to change. This short story explains Emily, her mystified ways and the townsfolk;s sympathetic curiosity.The plot of the story is mainly about Miss Emily;s attitude about change. ;On the first of the year they mailed her a tax notice. February came and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal letter asking her to call the sheriff;s office at her convenience. A week later the mayor wrote her herself, offering to call or to send his car for her, and received in reply a note on paper of an archaic shape, in a thin, flowing calligraphy in faded ink, to the effect that;s he no longer went out at all. The tax notice was enclosed, without comment.

; (189). Miss Emily was convinced that she had no taxes in Jefferson because before the Civil War the South didn;t have to pay taxes and since her father had made a contribution to the town of a generous amount, Colonel Sartoris, mayor at that time had remitted her taxes, she felt that that promise or rather gift still stood good. ;After her father;s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all.;(190). Miss Emily might have stayed out the public eye after those two deaths because she was finally alone, something she in her life was not used to. Emily;s father never let her alone and when he died Homer Baron was a treat she was never allowed to have.

Miss Emily;s stubborn attitude definitely came from her father;s strict teachings.The characters of this story are very briefly mentioned, Miss Emily and Mr. Homer Barron are the two main characters described. Miss Emily was described as a short, fat, aged and mysterious women during her later years.

Miss Emily had been through much and had seen many generations grow before and around her. This brings to reason her strong Confederate beliefs. Homer Barron; on the other hand was quite the opposite, ;A Yankee-a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face,;(191).

Homer described himself as man who couldn;t be tied down. This had to be a terrible opposition for Miss Emily. Towards the end of the story Emily seems to prove him wrong.

The setting of this passage is highly essential because it defines Miss Emily;s grasp of ante-bellum ways. This story take place throughout the Reconstruction Era from the late 1800;s to the early 1900;s in Jefferson, Mississippi. Jefferson was just one of the many Southern towns which was reformed by Northern reconstruction. The confederate quickly deteriorated without free labor to aid their farms and plantations. Miss Emily refused to allow modern change into her desolate life. For example she refused to let the newer generation fasten metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox when.