In William Faulkner's story, "A Rose for Emily," Faulkner tells the story of Emily Grierson. Emily, an upper class woman during the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, lives a rather down falling life. Emily lives in a time when many changes were occurring. Emily is a person from a powerful southern family. During Emily's childhood her family and many other families like her had very much power. However, during the turn of the century these changes started to occur. The changes Emily faced were her father dying, her "sweetheart" leaving her and her meeting a man named Homer Barron. All three of these incidents caused her downfall from southern power to eventually death. Emily's decay from power to nothing can be compared to the immense power that all wealthy southern families during this time and then their gradual fall from power because of many reasons. The story help to better understand the connection between outside forces and the power that these forces have on the rise and fall of certain people or groups of people. "A Rose for Emily" shows the decay of Emily Grierson, her decline not only represents her own fall from power but the overall fall of power of many upper class families in the south during this time period due to the fall of the Confederacy and the increased rights for women during the twentieth century.

As said before the changes Emily faced during her lifetime were her father dying, her "sweetheart" leaving her and her meeting a man named Homer Barron. These three changes go along with the theme of decay in this story. Emily's father like most southern men provided for his family and made them a great power. After he dies Emily is now on her own and must find a way to survive and keep her power. During this time in the South many woman did not have much power or were not prepared for so much power. Emily wants to keep this power and keep her family name important. She somewhat does this in a way by meeting a man only know as Emily's "sweetheart." Eventually this man leaves Emily so she is back where she started when her father died. Now she is trying to survive on her own and with little experience still Emily starts to go into a downward spiral. These two events cause her to become a recluse. She never leaves her home and is very rarely seen standing in a window looking out. She use to give painting lessons from her home and everyone would bring their children to her to learn how to paint but after these two incidents the only one to come and go is her butler. This butler is the only sign that see somewhat still has power. Even though this power is only over one man. Eventually a man shows up in Emily's town. His name is Homer Barron. He is a northern here for a construction job. Soon after Emily is seen with Homer in town. Emily is trying to obtain the power that she once had again. After she is seen with this man the story reads that she visits a druggist. She then asks for Arsenic, a powerful poison, when the druggist asked what she needs the poison for she gives no reply. Later on Homer Barron is no longer seen around town but no suspicions are aroused because all the construction he was doing had been finished. After Emily dies her butler disappears and all of her power is no longer seen. The house is searched and the corpse of Homer Barron is found. Emily poisoned him in hopes that he would not leave her and she would feel her power is secured.

Much like Emily's fall from power many southern families during this time also lose much of their power. This loss of power is not only in society but also for the men loss of power in their home. The two main issues that caused southern families to fall out of power were the fall of the Confederacy and increased rights for women. After the loss of the civil war the south was in a state of disarray. Many people were not ready to give up what they had been fighting on behalf of for such an extended amount of time. The people that were most not ready to give up were southern estate owners and upper class families in the south. The main reason they were not ready to give up was because they knew if they had to give up their slaves they would no longer have a work force and would lose a large amount of money (America's Reconstruction). This loss of money and loss of a work force meant a loss of power for these previously very powerful families. After the loss of their slaves upper class southern families and plantation owners often had to move from an agricultural field to a different field in hopes to still control their wealth and power (America's Reconstruction). Soon after the loss of the Civil War women across the country felt that they needed some justice from the oppressions they were also facing. This uprising would also impact wealthy and powerful southern families. Things such as suffrage and woman's movement into the work force changed everything for upper class families in the south. Now not only did the men have power over the family the women did also (The 19th Amendment). This major shift made these powerful families not so powerful anymore. Now that there were new ideas and new opportunities for almost everyone available people did not have to follow what the more powerful people said. Between society in the south during this time and in "A Rose for Emily" many comparisons can be seen.

The fall off of Emily and her family can compare to upper class southern families in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century almost identically. All though they do not face the same hardships they both rose to power obtained the power and then slowly lost the power. The loss of the men in Emily's life can somewhat be compared to the plantation owners loss of their slaves. The same that the slaves provided a work force and secured the wealth and power of the plantation and its owner Emily's father and sweetheart also provided this same security of wealth and power. When these two things are lost both Emily and the plantation owners are seeking that same security again. Unfortunately they both see a second wave of power loss, which eventually takes away most to all of their power. For the plantation owners these losses were women's rights and suffrage and for Emily it was Homer Barron. Although this might not have been Faulkner's main point he was trying to get across. After further investigation and research it is very easily seen that Emily and her life can be a metaphor for the loss of power and deterioration of the upper class and plantation owners in the south at the turn of the century.
