“A Rose for Emily” is set in the fictional town of Jefferson (based on Faulkner’s hometown of Oxford, Mississippi), which serves as a microcosm of the larger South. Faulkner portrays Jefferson as a place that strives for progressive change yet is stuck in the past. Unable to adapt to the challenges of Reconstruction, the older Southern characters struggle to come to terms with its decline.

One of the ways in which the story explores this theme is through the Grierson family, especially Emily, the last surviving member. Emily, who was raised by her domineering father, is a relic of the prewar South. She is unable to let go of her family’s heritage and clings to the traditions and values of a bygone era. Her refusal to allow the town to put up a mailbox is representative of her resistance to the modernization that characterized Reconstruction. Her transition over the course of the story—from a “slender figure in white” (51) as a young woman to “a small, fat woman in black” (49) in her old age—reflects the decay of the Southern aristocracy. Her family was once one of the most prominent in the Old South, but the violence of the Civil War and her father’s death result in Emily’s isolation in the decaying family home.