cumstances of the story, is Ab's barn burning justified? Should Sarty tell the landlord that Ab was responsible for burning down the barn? Burning a barn or any other act of vandalism is definitely not condoned (Mack 1798-1812). Faulkner's use of the townspeople in Yoknapatawpha County is also emphasized in A Rose for Emily. This is another short story of Faulkner's in which the death of Miss Emily brings together the entire population of Jefferson. Jefferson is the main town in Faulkner's fictional county. Faulkner uses a great deal of symbolism in this story. Miss Emily was raised in the period before the Civil War in the south. An unnamed narrator, who seems to be the voice of the whole town, calls attention to key moments in her life, including the death of her father and her brief relationship with a man from the north named Homer Barron. The story basically addresses the symbolic changes in the south after the Civil War. Miss Emily's house symbolizes neglect in the new times in the town of Jefferson. Beginning with Miss Emily Grierson's funeral, throughout the story Faulkner foreshadows the ending and suspenseful events in Miss Emily's life. The continuing symbolism and Faulkner's descriptions of the decaying house coincide with Miss Emily's physical and emotional decay. As an example, the house is in an area of town that was once a prominent neighborhood that has now deteriorated. Originally the house was a big white house with large balconies, and the yard was decorated with beautiful flowers. But now the people of the town think that the house has become an embarrassment to the town. This happened through a lack of attention. The house has deteriorated from a beautiful estate to an ugly shack. Similarly, Miss Emily has also become an eyesore in various ways. She is described as a "fallen monument" to suggest her former beauty and her later ugliness (Faulkner 119-130). Her lover for a brief time, Homer, described himself as a ma...
