A Rose for Emily

A rose for emily is the token story of new generation pushing out old generation. Emily, representing the southern mentality during the civil war era is a legend of her town, almost showing a childish mysticism in her mere presence at the village. thus when she buys arsenic at the drug store many of the townspeople (who is represented by the narrator) come to believe that she will kill herself. This, ontop of the city's authorities trying to have Emily pay for city taxes (after she hadn't paid them for over 10 years because of the kindness of the now deceased sherrif), shows both the lack of trust in this sort of an old mystic understanding of the world but also a less caring and emotional response to the people who come from this age. The new systematic, future is pushing her generations less efficient system out of the way. It shows the lack of empathy in modern society and the greater ability of previous generations to work with and care for its externalities; a much more human approach in comparison to the narrator's lack of empathy for this woman.