Emily Grierson lives in the past in A Rose for Emily by William FaulknerIn "A Rose for Emily", by William Faulkner, Emily Grierson appears to live with her father in what people called the old South. However, most of the story takes place after the Civil War, but Miss Emily is clearly living in the past. As the critic Frederick Thum pointed out, "Many people are able to survive in the present, but think little or no thought about the future, and such people usually live in the past. Such a mind is the mind of Miss Emily Grierson. . "(1). Miss Emily's understanding of death, her relationship with the townspeople, and her reaction towards taxes are clear examples of how she lives in the past. At the beginning of the story, the narrator tells the reader that "our whole town went to his funeral." "(336). The narrator goes on to inform the reader that "It was a 'fallen monument...[sig] a tradition, a duty, and a care: a kind of hereditary obligation to this city'" (Pierce 850). "The Miss Emily was called a 'fallen monument' because she was a 'monument' of Southern kindness, and ideal of past values ​​but fallen because she had shown herself susceptible to death (and decay" (Rodriguez 1). After Emily's death, most of the people in her town were younger than her and had never been able to include her in their lives or community activities. She was mostly an example of an old ideal of Southern femininity, even though she was fat and pale in her later years. The older and younger generations of citizens treated Miss Emily differently. "'The older generation, under the mayoralty of Colonel Sartois, exempted Miss Emily from taxes and sent her children. to take... .. half of the paper ......fights with each other. His refusal or inability to exit this world is reflected in his understanding of death, his relationship with the people of the city, and his reaction towards taxes. Works Cited and Consulted Faulkner, William. “A Rose for Emily” Literature and the Writing Process Eds. Elizabeth McMahan, Susan X Day and Robert Funk. 4th edition. Upper Saddle River: Prentince Hall, 1996. Pierce, Constance, “William Faulkner.” Critical Inquiry into Short Fiction Ed. Frank N. MaGill. 7 vols. Pasadena, California: Salem Press, 1993: 848-857. Rodriquez, Celia. “An Analysis of 'A Rose for Emily.'” September 9, 1996. March 17, 1998 http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/daniel/amlit/reader/South?radriquezerose.htmlLoro, Frederick. "A Rose for Emily: Confusion Between Past and Present." October 2, 1995. March 17, 1998 http://sru.ocs.drexel.edu.undergrad/st93mey7/fred/rose.html