Unlike Marketing or Biology where there is a diverse specter of practical case studies or the broad variety of scientific notions respectively, English term paper topics usually come down mainly to those intercepting with Literature, Country study or Linguistics. It is obvious that the range of topics to select here is rather poor however the problem can be resolved with the original angle of view at the problem and a bit of creativity. It is well known that all new things are just forgotten old things. It is not a problem to take an interesting topic and rephrase it in order to add more flavor to the subject.

The list of the most popular English term paper topics:

• Peculiarities of stylistic organization in Shakespeare’s sonnets;
• Noun in comparison to other notional parts of speech in English;
• Symbolism in ‘Mobi Dic’;
• The concept of freedom as a national idea in the USA;
• English as the international language.

In the story “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, the daughters, “Dee” and “Maggie” are affected by all three criteria. The mother of these girls makes a life changing action due to the perception that the daughters have of themselves and each other. She realizes that how she handles the particular situation of the “quilt” will directly effect the confidence of her youngest daughter.

The past crisis that affected the two daughters was a fire that burned down their house. This crisis not only has a direct effect on Maggie’s perception of herself, but also reveals Dee’s personality to her mother. The mother remembers how she carried Maggie out of the burning flames and how pitiful and scared her daughter looked. Dee, on the other hand, was standing underneath a tree watching contently as the house went up in flames. The house was embarrassing to Dee and as her mother looked at her, she thought that Dee would start dancing on the ashes.

The fire left burn scars on Maggie. Ever since than, her lack of confidence deteriorated drastically which shows immensely in her physical actions. The mother refers to this behaviour a number of times when describing Maggie to the reader. She bluntly states that because of the fire, Maggie is “homely and ashamed of her burn scars down her arms and legs” and she walks like a “lame animal, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle”. When comparing physical attributes, Dee is far prettier than Maggie is. Her skin is light compared to Maggie’s, she has nicer hair and a fuller figure. It is know that a woman who feels physically appealing is more confident in herself than those that are not. Maggie, with burn scars, feels inferior to her sister. Dee is over confident and has no shame.

In her social life, Dee has what seems to be a lot of friends. It seems like a catty group that cares for how one looks, dresses and how they appear to everyone else. To add to Dee’s ego, her friends worship her not only because of her physical appearance but because she reads to them. She has many boyfriends and got serious with one in particular who abandoned her for a city girl. During the time she dated him she ignored her family. The fact that her boyfriend left her for a city girl had a direct effect on her ego. Instead of trying to become a smart city girl she went a different route. This is when she turned back to her routes. As for Maggie, her social life consists of the farm and direct family. It would be hard for her to make friends because at the young age, kids are ignorant. They would tease her and make her feel more insecure. This is why she stays home.

Dee is well educated and realized that if she wanted to have a life away from the farm that she would need a good education. Her mother is hopeful of her becoming something with her life and even raised money with the church to send her away to school. Maggie on the other hand is not too bright. It never states the education that she is acquiring but she does know how to read. The problem is that she can’t see well. Her mother has already arranged a marriage for her so that she will be taken care of knowing that she does not have the same potential as her sister, Dee.

The setting of the story is during the 1960’s. There was still a strong impact on racial discrimination. The mother states that she would never look a white man in the eye, which implies she feels inferior to the “white man”. She is big, uneducated, and manly and is a single mother. Her feelings about herself are greatly projected in how she deals with her daughters. She feels that Dee is beautiful and educated, which means that Dee has potential to become a “somebody”. She lets Dee do what she wants when she wants and buys her new clothes so that Dee will be happy. The mother feels that Maggie is not pretty and not smart and that is why she arranged the marriage for Maggie. She doesn’t think that Maggie will find somebody on her own.

The mother’s in turn caused Dee to be a user, spoiled, confident and “Know it all”. Dee insisted on reading to her mother and Dee but would stop in time for them to not learn enough treating them like dimwits. She was always trying to tell them things they didn’t know to make her self feel even more superior which made Maggie feel inferior. She was embarrassed about their house and when she left for school she promised to visit but not with her friends. When she did come home she couldn’t stop taking pictures of the house. This shows the way she shifts her attitudes because of social pressures.

Maggie always felt in the shadows and in awe of her sister. She was scared of her sister because the way Dee controlled her mother. By always succumbing to Dee, Maggie felt that Dee was her superior and it showed when she was nervous about the arrival of her sister. Maggie believed that her sister “held life in the palm of her hand” and she was always getting the short end of the stick. She never complained because she believed that this is how God worked. Dee wasn’t nice to Maggie and I believe would refer to Maggie as being stupid a great deal. She stated at one point during the visit that Maggie’s brain is like and elephants The mother never seemed to interfere or stick up for Maggie.

All in all, this led up to the big even with the “quilt“. Dee wanted the quilt and her mother promised it to Maggie. Dee already claimed it for her own and even backed away when her mother tried to take it from her. Maggie at first was upset and slammed the kitchen door but than afterwards, knowing her fate, told her mother that Dee could have the quilt. Her mother says that she felt like something knocked her on the head I think kind of like knocking sense into her. The sense was that she finally realized that how she treated her daughters greatly affected their confidence. Dee’s confidence was already so great that if her mother said “No” it wouldn’t affect her. On the other hand, if the mother said “Yes” to Dee it would have just went along with all of Maggie’s perceptions of her sister, never hearing the word “No”, and her confidence would never grow. Because the mother said yes, Maggie grew instant confidence, was not scared of her sister anymore and actually gave a real smile to Dee when she left.

I believe the mother was so busy in life, being a single mom trying to provide for her daughters, that she didn’t realize the effect she was having on them. Dee took advantage of it and Maggie accepted everything the way it was. The quilt for Dee was an object of social status that she could show her friends how concerned she was about her routes. As for Maggie, the quilt was a sentimental object. Dee still did not change from the experience but a whole new world opened up for Maggie and the mother as well. Dee is already an independent young woman and doesn’t need her mother’s approval or affection anymore. Maggie is still young and insecure. Now that her mother is aware of how her behaviour affects Maggie it will in turn change the way Maggie feels about herself.

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Achilleus is the primary hero of the Iliad’s plot and the chief example of heroism in the poem. When roused, he is a barely controlled whirlwind of mayhem, more like a god than a hero. As Odysseus is a hero like Achilleus, he also goes into these bloodlusts. There is an instance in the Iliad where Odysseus is so enraged and fearsome when he sees his companion Leukos struck down that the Trojans recoil from his aristeia (=bloody frenzy of a hero) and “gave way in the face of the man” (Iliad.IV.497). However, Achilleus’ speech making, whilst passionate and fiery are not as eloquent as Odysseus. Antenor recalls such rhetoric that he describes Odysseus’ words “drifting down like the winter snows” (Iliad.III.212) and Homer describes him as “like Zeus in counsel” (Iliad.II.636). He will continue to be a great orator in the Odyssey, as Alcinous observes – “You have a grace upon your words” (Odyssey.IX.367). Achilleus though is removed from the comradery of the other Greeks and acts as a maverick. As Odysseus moves into the Odyssey, he adapts and builds upon the original model of heroism with additional characteristics. Whilst Achilleus is a savage of demonic anger, strength and reflex, Odysseus of the Odyssey becomes a true man of “metis” (=cunning), guile and strategy.

Odysseus’ changing behaviour in the Odyssey is an example of ring composition. Odysseus begins his narrative with his sailing from Troy to Ismarus. Here he briefly recounts how he sacked the Kikones, in an archetypal Iliadic fashion, a mere raid for more spoils to take home to Ithaca. Near the end of the poem he uses his sword for the second time , slaughtering the suitors in the palace. There are occasional lapses to his Iliadic character midway. Examples include his anger at inappropriate speaking out (compare Thersites in the Iliad (II.246) to Eurylochus in the Odyssey Book X), as well his donning of his armour beneath the cave of Scherie, despite Circe saying it was useless to do so. However over the journey there is a marked change as Odysseus progressively alters his behaviour from the Odysseus we saw in the Iliad. One subtle piece of evidence for this is the mere way that he introduces himself. At the beginning of his travels, he declares himself to Polyphemus as the “sacker of cities” (Odyssey.IX.504), a very Iliadic label. But when he introduces himself to King Antinous, near the end of his travels, he counts his “crafty designs” as his most noteworthy claim to fame. This indicates his emergence from the values of the warrior age.

One reason for the transformation of Odysseus is the very different subject matter of the Odyssey compared to the Iliad. Whilst the storyline of the former is a single hero with his men travelling through a fairyland, encountering strange beasts and peoples, the latter is a gritty tale of war, with armies pitched in bloody combat, glory being won or lost as warriors lay down their lives in the dust. Odysseus is forced to change his behaviour to survive this different world, and if it weren’t for his skills of strategy and rhetoric he would perish. If Achilleus for example had seen Polyphemus “slapping” his comrades’ heads onto the floor like “puppies” (ref. Odyssey.IX.289), he would have done what Odysseus consciously controls himself from doing, killing the monster immediately and thus unknowingly dooming them all to imprisonment within the sealed cave. The rhetoric of Odysseus wins over the princess Nausicaa on the shores of Scherie. He makes the astute judgement that traditional supplication would be inappropriate in his naked and grimy state (i.e. clutching her knees), a decision uncommon to the brash, swearing Achilles, unused to such subtle female interaction. It is in this way that Odysseus ensures welcome for himself in the land of the “sneering” (ref Odyssey.VII.17) Phaiakians. This is not to say that his stubborness and single-minded nature does not ever endanger himself or his crew, indeed they suffer as a result. Examples include his secrecy in not telling them about the bag of Aiolos as well as his stubborn control of the rudder until he tires as they sail from Aiolia, which leads to their reverse. This dogged attitude is an unresolved issue of the supressed Iliadic warrior coming through, though in general it is under control. He ponders the voice of his archaic warrior (e.g. after being blown back to Aiolia, when Eurylochus is insubordinate on Aeaea) but his new heroic character is superior.

Despite these examples of the Ithakans being put in danger, Odysseus does learn about leadership, becoming more adept as he suffers. He does not have the luxury of forgetting his people for single combat, as the Kings of the Iliad do (e.g. Odysseus’ the use of a team to drive the sharpened stake into Polyphemus’ eye in the Odyssey). The changing way that he approaches a new island is evidence of this growing wisdom for command. Learning from the Kikones episode, Odysseus leaves the fleet off shore on an island and takes a small party inland at the land of the Cyclopes. At Telepylus, he keeps his ship separate from the others to ensure its safety and sends in only a few men. Learning from their demise, at Aeaea he sends in a more numerous party inland, half the men in fact, and gives command of it to another man (Eurylochus), the first instance of shared command. He also starts to tell his men more what he hears from counsels. Whilst he doesn’t tell the men about Aeolus’ sack of winds, he learns from his mistake and he does tell them the warnings of Teiresias about the cattle of Hyperion (even though they doomed themselves, despite Odyseeus’ efforts). Numerous disasters create a very thick skin around the hero, awarding him the epithet “long-suffering”. When Calypso warns him of danger on the sea, he is by now so accustomed that he merely states “So let this adventure follow.” (Odyssey.V.222)

The primary reason for the transformation of Odysseus, and the watershed in his attitude is Book XI – his visit to the underworld. Indeed, this act alone marks him out as a hero, when one considers the other mortals that have walked the same path (e.g. Hercules, who in fact did not return – Odyssey.XI.632). It is a trial that cannot be met with brute force. Here he meets Achilleus, the dead quintessential Iliadic hero. Odysseus is undoubtedly envious of the glory achieved by Achilleus in his death, as he has just been told by Teiresias that he himself will die of old age in a far off time, after the completion of his last voyage. He tells him “[do] not grieve, even in death, Achilleus” (Odyssey.XI.486). Achilleus completely counters this: “I would rather follow the plow as thrall to another man, one with no land allotted him and not much to live on, than be a king over all the perished dead” (Odyssey.XI.488). This is a sharp change to the vision of war portrayed in the Iliad. However, this new view is evident throughout the Odyssey. Even Menelaus echoes the words of Achilleus that he would sell the majority of his estate if “the men were alive who died in those days in wide Troy” (Odyssey.IV.97) and Helen uses a potion to help forget these pains of war. The simile of the weeping widow on the battlefield used when Odysseus cries at the feast of Alcinous is also well chosen. If Odysseus had been hoping for a nostalgic talk of Iliadic times in the Underworld he was sorely dissapointed. With this knowledge then , Odysseus continues his travels and endures further suffering. The most symoblic image of this is of him clinging to the fig tree above Charybdis at the end of Book XII.

Another consequence of his visit to the Underworld is his association with divine judgement. He saw the punishments of those such as Tityos, Tantalos and Sisyphos (Odyssey.XI.576-635) and is truly aware of the consequences of trangsgressions. Hero blends in with a role as agent of the gods. Whilst he was always been associated with the gods, and specifically with Athene in the Iliad, the relationship with Athene in the Odyssey becomes even more personal. Odysseus walks with the goddess, who feels genuine affection for him (“stroked him with her hand” Odyssey.XIII.288). He is the human closest to her own heart (“best of all mortal men for counsel and stories, and I among all the divinities am famous for wit and sharpness” Odyssey.XIII.298). The two sit down together and hatch a plan, which Athene takes full co-operation in, to eradicate the suitors. When the final battle is complete, his position as Odyssean divine agent, not an Iliadic warrior is established by his rebuke of Eurycleia’s crowing – It is not piety to glory so over slain men. These were destroyed by the doom of the gods’ (Odyssey.XXII.412). He disassociates himself with their death, an action completely different to Achilleus. Compare Odysseus’ taking of vengeance on the suitors with AchilleusТ dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy! The eventual laying down of Odysseus with his wife at the end of the story (to say nothing of the farsical peace with the suitors’ relatives afterwards) resolves the themes and the heroТs purpose is accomplished. His retelling of his endeavours to Penelope point out the wisdom and experience he has acquired. His final ability to put down his sword and armour for ever settles the problem Hector had of not being able to be a hero and a father (ref. Crying of his son when he sees Hector with his helmet on), whilst Achilleus could never be without war. Whilst Odysseus is fated to die of old age in his bed in his family home, Achilleus died young and in battle, as his nature demanded.

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From the start J.D Salinger would incorporate symbolism as necessary tool for showing the full detailing of his novel. The novel begins with Holden isolated from the rest of his friends. He detaches himself from Pency’s social norm by sitting atop Thomsen Hill while the rest of the school attended a much celebrated football game. This would set the mood for the rest of the novel. Holden perceives himself as one of the few truly good and sincere people in his world and so he exemplifies this by sitting upon this hill, setting himself up above the rest, above and away from the school’s phonies and superficial characters. He despises these people and is ironic when nearby is a cannon. He might have noticed this and tells us so as to convey its potential.

The audience goes on to see that Holden has much difficulty getting along, socially inadequate. Holden is extremely judgmental and overly analytical. Through his whining he often finds humor in his “obviously” inferior peers. That “sexy bastard Stradlater and the ever rude, hovering Ackley. The most notorious word in Holden’s vocabulary is “phony”. He applies this term loosely to anyone too typical or conventional; people who mask what they are really feeling and thinking. It is enticing for the reader to follow his train of thought because he too wishes to persecute the ignorant and the fake but to take time to study why this is is to see that it is not so much that his phonies are superficial but are his views. Such as judging Stradlater by his good looks and Ackley with his acne ridden face. Holden often avoids more profound interpretations for simple generalizations and usages of labels such as being a “phony”.

For J.D. Salinger’s generation, sex had become a taboo matter only spoken of during very fleeting and private moments. In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden openly explorers his sexuality with girls and the possibility of himself secretly being a “flit”. Homosexuality was not tolerated when first published but Holden’s character would revel in all that was unmentionable. Holden indeed had an odd outlook on the subject of sex for he often tells of his arousal towards girls he hates, does not like, and does not respect. All the meanwhile being Catcher’s protagonist he is strangely entranced by forms of kinky foreplays that include degrading his partner; such as spitting in their face. At one time he hires a prostitute through and elevator-working pimp. A young girl shortly arrives at his hotel room door. He is fascinated that she is so young and so casual about the act of sex. Very fleetingly does she show any of the child innocence that Holden holds to such high esteem. When this young girl “fell” she was without her “catcher” to save her. His passing affections usually began with great desire but always ended with his own great disgust.

When Holden first re-unites with Sally Hayes:
“She looked really terrific. She really did.” “The funny part is, I felt like marrying her the minute I saw her. I’m crazy. I didn’t even like her much, and yet all of a sudden I felt like I was in love”. “He depicts the end of his ambivalent relationship with Sally as such: “I sort of hated old Sally by the time we got in the cab”. “She gives him, -  a royal pain in the ass”. “I was pretty goddamn fed up by that time.” He desires human affection yet rejects it at the same time. His inability to achieve a happy median leaves Holden often fed up with humanity.

Through out the narrative Holden contradicts himself over and over again at times such as: his ambivalent relationship with Sally Hayes, telling that he refuses to tell the reader about his past and anything having to do with his childhood. Stradlater begins as a pretty good guy but after finding about his promiscuous acts with his Jane, Stradlater is portrayed as nothing more than a “sexy bastard”. These run-on sentences proved an outlet for Holden’s erratic thoughts. These leave room to reveal the disparity between what he sees and what he perceives. His thoughts reinforce what he sees as his own noble child innocence. All of this unfortunately adds to his inner battles and emotional turmoil.

Holden never throughout the novel forgets his few if only sources of happiness. He reminisces Allie’s death and the poetry he left behind. As well Phoebe’s insightfulness, unwavering affection and lastly Jane and her kings all in the back row. Times when he describes them or is in their presence the negative, erratic thoughts give way as he gives them his uninterrupted focus. These are the few times when he is happy.

Phoebe in the end becomes a very vital character. Up to that point the reader had only Holden’s views to rely upon to come to a conclusion about the society that he encounters. One evening while still pondering the disappearances of the Central Park ducks, though temporarily cheered up by a young boys singing, Holden feels he needs a break from his own ever-depressing thoughts decides he needs to Сshoot the bull’ with Phoebe by discreetly stealing back into the old apartment. Phoebe is young yet understands much, such as knowing that maturing and moving on is all part of growing up. At one point she challenges her brother’s views on life. She asks him what wants to be? What is something he really likes? Holden remembers Robert Burns’ poem and states if he could do anything in the world he’d “catch a body coming through the rye.” Phoebe is quick to correct the verse goes, “If a body meet a body coming through the rye”. Holden goes on to describe his fantasy of being the savior for all misguided kids. To protect them should they go astray in the rye that is life and to catch them before they fall off the cliff. Fall from their innocene into a jaded, cruel and phony adult world. Phoebe changes the subject. He loves Phoebe dearly but to further the view that he cannot interact with others at a deeper level, he accuses her of sometimes being too affectionate when once she throws her arms around him. Phoebe is introduced as Holden’s foil for who deeply contrasts with his own emotionally stunted views. On the way out while trying to avoid getting caught he secretly wishes that he would be. This is a helpful metaphor for HoldenТs capacity for human interaction. While wanting to avoid it, simultaneously secretly yearning for all that can offer. By introducing Phoebe, Salinger provides the audience a new, more objective view of Holden. One that finally analyzes his faults, faults where Holden rarely admitted having any.

After a near miss with being found in her room by his unknowing parents, he resolves to escapes to a former teacher who he holds with high esteem (well at least never labeling him a phony) for Holden admires Mr. Antolini for once being the only who would help a deceased suicide victim. Mr. Antolini shows that he obviously is not like the rest of the people Holden knows. Antolini welcomes Holden even with short notice, invites him to stay and introduces him to his older wife. He does not seem to hide his thoughts or mask them with facades. His smoking and heavy drinking relates him to the pupil. Mr. Antolini immediately sits him and futilely attempts to describe a “great fall” headed for Holden if he doesn’t realize the significance of education, maturing and moving on. “This fall I think you’re riding for- it’s a special kind of fall, a horrible kind. The man falling isn’t permitted to feel or hear himself hit bottom. He just keeps falling and falling.” He clumsily attempts to articulate his prophecy with vague descriptions that end up muddying the water. Instead he diverts to writing a fortune cookie type message that suggests something about Holden: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” After much elaboration is the subject finally dropped and Holden sleeps on the couch. Something happens during the night and once again Holden strongly contradicts himself. He refuses to talk about saying he doesn’t even like thinking about it but then continues to tell the tale. Holden awakes during the night to find the much-respected teacher’s hand petting him in the face. Holden’s homophobia and already uncertain sexuality has him making and excuse and leaves immediately from the apartment. He heads for Grand Central, sits on a bench and ponders his situation. For the first time Holden second-guesses his own snap judgment. Before you were either a flit or a phony. Holden contemplates whether his judgment was wrong and this is where he begins to see the truth behind all that he is.

On the last walk through the city that Holden would have before the end of the novel, he has a premonition that at the end of each city block, he wouldn’t make it to the other side. At the end of each block is Holden’s “rye” and the street, his cliff. At each curb he can’t see pass the “rye” to see the dangers at the bottom of the cliff. He becomes so consumed with his fear that he can’t see to the other side. His future and potential. Even with Mr. Antolini’s best cautions of the foreseeable “great fall”, no one will be there to catch a Holden Caulfield running blindly through the rye.

In the much interpreted ending, Holden takes Phoebe to a carousel in the park. He asks her to ride but declines to join her. A secound time she rides. Holden merely watches his joy take joy in her childhood. He does not take part because he is no longer part of his child hood and this offers a glimmer of hope for the hero many related with.

Many over the years since The Catcher in the Rye was first published have disceted the ending, discussing wether Holden would go on reveling in is immaturity or to press on into maturing in a member of the masses. A very arguable point is this. Mr. Antolini shared with us this: “The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.” Holden never offered to sacrifice his life to save the children but instead choosing to “come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’d just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it’s crazy, but thatТs the only thing I’d really like to be.”

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“A Rose for Emily” is told from the viewpoint of an anonymous resident of the town where the story takes place. In Jefferson, Mississippi, the Grierson family was looked at very highly. Emily was raised by a strict father, which after his passing still feels irreplaceable ties towards him, like any daughter would. Because of him, her ties to the “Old South” remain with her, while holding on to the memories that she has of him. She learned from him to be proud of their old self-heritage.

Emily seems to be the product of a past era and surrounds herself with reminders of the times before. Referred to as a “fallen monument” in the story, Emily was once a product of what the South once stood for, and has “fallen” when she becomes subjected to death and perishes away (425). Throughout the story, she fades from the strong, effervescent person that she was, to a person in hiding, living in the shadows of her past. This feeling of hers is shown when she keeps her fathers body in the house after he has died, denying that he is even dead. She is unwilling to let go of the past, and is trying to keep hold of everything in the past that remains. All her life, she had been put on a pedestal. But after her father’s passing “it got about that the house was all that was left to her, and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily” (428).

After being abandoned after her father passes away, finding herself lost and alone, she finds herself a lover to whom her strict father would have forbid, for “None of the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily” (p. 428). Homer represents a change in her life, as he represents the New South and the attitude that starts to invade the town of Jefferson. He was “a Yankee – a big, dark, ready man with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face” (428). The people of the town looked on as the “Old South Emily” was seen on “Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy” with Homer (428). Eventually, she began to realize that her relationship with Homer was essentially forbidden, due to whom she was and what she was supposed to stand for. Upon the arrival of her cousins, Emily became repulsed with what she was doing, realizing that although she loved and cared for Homer, he represented everything that she was against – the ruin of the family and of the Old South. With this, Homer suddenly disappeared, and this is when Emily began to disappear also. She took shelter from the world and the town of new ideas that surrounded her, and took Homer with her, by putting him to rest in the room that they shared together. “From that time on, the front door remained closed” (430).

The house where Emily hides herself away for years has many parallels with the changing south, as well as Miss Emily herself. The house was “once white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been our most select street” (426). This house that was once the most beautiful in Jefferson, has now turned into “an eyesore among eyesores” (426). This also parallels with what Miss Emily was once like. At one point, she was standing above the rest, and now only stands out against all of the new townspeople. Times began to change and “cotton gins and auto garages” replaced the houses. Because of these new changes that came along with modernization and industrialization, Emily and her house became the last evidence that showed the refusal to the new ways, her house serving as a visible reminder of this.

The Grierson’s house showed her refusal to come out of the past that she was trapped in. When the Board of Alderman arrives at Emily’s house questioning about the taxes, “it smelled of dust and disuse – a close, dank smell. It was furnished in heavy, leather-covered furniture” (426). When the blinds were drawn, “a faint dust rose sluggishly about their thighs, spinning with slow motes in the single sun-ray” (426). The house was filled with shadows, not only rejecting the sunlight into the house, but the light of the future as well.

Following this grave condition of the house, a similar description is given of Miss Emily. Her appearance is depicted as looking “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough,” much like the previous description of the house (426). But Emily was not always like this. In the portrait with her father, Emily is described as “a slender figure in white in the background,” delicate, fresh and full of life. After her father dies, she is described “with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows – sort of tragic and serene” (428).

Both the house and the tenant can be seen as suffering with age and abandonment. The darkness and obscurity of the house with a “dim hall from which a stairway mounted into still more shadow” has a tie with Miss Emily herself. (426) She is a “small, fat woman in black…her skeleton small and spare” with a voice that is “dry and cold” (426, 7). After years of seclusion and a yearning to stay in the past, she becomes decayed herself, just as the house becomes. Emily’s soul becomes lost in the house, which represents the past and everything she stands for. The soul of the house also becomes lost, as times change. Something that was once so beautiful and grand is now nothing more than an “eyesore.”

As changes occur from the movement of the Old South to the New South, transformations are seen all over the town. Just as in the appearance of the town as they “let the contracts for paving the sidewalks” the people of the town turned to “more modern ideas” (428, 426).

At the turn of this new era, some people favored the change while others held on to the past. The town began to change, and those people that agreed with the new thoughts began to step up and realize their own self worth. The newer generation, “with its more modern ideas” became the strength of the town (426). As people of the older generation started to move out of Jefferson, in came the fresh, new minds that represented the New South. Emily still felt ties to the Old South, and so continued to hide herself away in her deteriorating house. It is in that house where she slowly deteriorates as a person.

Throughout the story, several characters can be seen to symbolize the changing South that is seen during the story. These key characters still reflect on the “old” ideas before the South began to change, and as it continued to change. Although the entire town is changing before their eyes, this old generation of thoughts and ideas is still present, although it eventually fades away with time. As Daniel Bronson states in his response to this story, “Members of the Old South were very honorable, graceful, and above all, dignified. They had great respect for each other and each other’s feelings” (435). These characteristic traits are shown through several characters throughout the story through actions they take for Emily, someone who saw things the same way they did.

Colonel Sartoris, a man who “fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron” still passed on her taxes – the privilege that was given to her after her fathers passing (426). He makes up a story to defend the prior fabricated story, something that “only a man of Colonel Sartoris’ generation and thought could have invented” (426). When the Board of Aldermen, of the new generation, come to her house to request her taxes, they view this situation quite differently than Colonel Sartoris did. Emily insists that his word is enough evidence, which the “new” men insist that this is not correct because their new views aren’t based on “promises” or “word” but rather the law and “the books.” However in the end, they too dismiss her taxes, but only due to the fact that Emily is who she is and because of the promise that Colonel Sartoris had given her.

Another character in the story that still abides by these Old South values is Judge Stevens. When a smell began to invade around Miss Emily’s property, the “new” townspeople started complaining. “It was another link between the gross, teeming world and the high and mighty Grierson’s” (427). Judge Stevens, being 80 years of age, belongs to the old generation of ideas, just like Emily. When a woman of the town complains of the smell, she insisted that word should be sent to her to stop the smell by asking, “Isn’t there a law?” (427). Judge Stevens speaks against word of the new by saying, “Dammit…will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?” (427). This Old South mindset is quite evident regarding the situation with the smell and how Judge Stevens handled it, by showing self-respect to a fellow person of his time. After all, when Emily was alive, she was “a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (426).

The situation with receiving the poison at the pharmacy also reflects on the dwindling, but still present spirit of the Old South, despite the changing times. Upon her request for arsenic, the pharmacist says, “If that’s what you want. But the law requires you to tell what you are going to use it for” (429). Although Emily basically insisted that this drug be given to her despite the law, the pharmacist complies with her request, even though it really is not permissible. This action by the pharmacist is typical of the values of the Old South, as he shows honor and respect for Miss Emily, realizing that this would help her.

Throughout Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” a vivid picture is painted of the many changes that occur in the South after the Civil War. As the Old South moves out and the New South moves in, Emily refuses the changes that are occurring in Jefferson, Mississippi, which are bound to happen eventually. After years of fighting against the alterations of this era, she falls victim to it. Just as her house, the death of her father, and the townspeople, she too finally meets the same destiny. “And now Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of those august names where they lay in the cedar-bemused cemetery” where they rest, signifying the past that Miss Emily tried for so long to hold on to (426).

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