Many people hate to let things go. People find security and comfort in theirpossessions and the company they keep. If all this is ripped away from a person, it canhave a very negative effect on that persons life. In Faulkners short story, A Rose forEmily, everything that a person knows is gradually taken away from her graduallyleading to her madness.Miss Emily, the main character in this short story, is an example of a time thatonce was. Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditaryobligation upon the town(362). Not only is her appearance a symbol of the past but theplace that she called home is also very old fashioned. Miss Emilys house was left, liftingits stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline bumps-aneyesore among eyesores(362). Miss Emily stays the same while the next generation,with its more prominent ideas(362) are becoming more visible and established.Miss Emily not only has a hard time of letting material things go, but she also has atough time of letting the people in her life leave her. Miss Emily loves her father verymuch, but his death devastates her. It also brings her down to earth. Being left alone,and a pauper, she had become humanized(364). The death of her father also throws herinto a horrible case of denial. She told them [ the ladies ] that her father was notdead(364). She told everyone this for three days, and just as the [ the people ] wereabout to resort to law and force, she broke down and they buried her father quickly(364). This is one case of a important person leaving Miss Emilys life.Another character that plays a main part in Emilys life is a man named HomerBarron. Barron is a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than hisface(365). Emily madly in love with this man, eventually to the point where she mentionsmarriage to Homer. When this is said to Homer it is said that he was not a marryingman(366). Once ...
