William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” is not only great in the sense of the interesting story, but also introduces readers to a very different time period than we live in now. “A Rose for Emily” was placed during the post-civil war era. At this point in time, racism was a huge problem in the United States, and this story revolves around Miss Emily, who was black, or as they refer to her in the story as a “negro.” The story continues to show the significance of the cultural background, as if this story took place in 2016, many things in the story would not work out the way that they did. By looking at both the time period and culture in “A Rose for Emily,” we can see that this effects the entire story and how readers view it, which most readers do not see; this is important because it changes our perspectives as readers on Miss Emily and the other characters in the story.

“A Rose for Emily” takes place in the late 1800’s and into the early 1900’s. This is shown in the third paragraph of the text where it states, 

“Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel Sartoris, the mayor—he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.” (Faulkner 1).

This shows that Miss Emily’s father had passed away around this time, considering that is when Colonel Sartoris had told Miss Emily that she could live in the house for free, thanks to her father’s help while he was alive, claiming that he had loaned money to the town (Faulkner 1). It is important to realize when reading this story that Miss Emily was indeed black, and during this time period people were truly cruel to the black population. In the early 1900’s, the KKK (Ku Klux Klan) was very powerful and strongly populated the south. Many lynching’s of black people took place, and so did Cross burnings (Loya 1). Compared to how racism was during the time period of “A Rose for Emily,” Miss Emily was treated exceptionally well. The worst that had been done to her in the story was being called a “Negro.” The time period reflects on how not many truly cared about the well-being of Miss Emily, and they were just curious as to why she never came out of her house.

If “A Rose for Emily” had taken place in 2016, the story would be extremely different. To start off, “Negro” is not an acceptable term, it is disrespectful and harsh. Especially considering back in this time period, blacks were not considered “Negros” as much as they were considered “Niggers.” This would not fly in 2016 and would cause much ruckus. Also, people do not receive free rent from the city council, no matter what your power holds in the city. Even the rich and famous pay for their own living. Now-a-days, if someone had refused to pay for their own price of living, they would be evacuated from their home, which Miss Emily was not. Also to remember, if someone had been missing or unseen for quite some time, there would be an investigation. People would have found Homer Barron’s body long before they had, which was when Miss Emily herself had died. 

Since it is well hinted at that “A Rose for Emily” was placed during a hard time for the black population, it creates the reader to remember that white’s had superiority over blacks during this time period. Readers are not very emotionally attached to this woman that the entire story is about. This is likely due to the fact that in the story she is looked down upon. Miss Emily does indeed make a few people wonder about her, but the story never states that anyone put effort into seeing this poor, lonely lady. The only time people would interact with her was when they would try to get her to pay for her house, or when they got rid of the pungent scent that was eluting from her house.

In the early 1900’s, the life expectancy was around 48 for whites, and 33 years for blacks (Digital History).  Miss Emily was said to had died in 1934 at the extreme old age of 74 (Faulkner). This is very shocking for the time period and shows even more curiosity behind what Emily had done all the years she locked herself away in her home. This creates Miss Emily to shock the readers even more and shows once again how different Miss Emily had been from any average black woman during this time period. 

Overall, William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” shows both the time period and culture, we can see that this effects the entire story and how readers view it, which most readers do not see; this is important because it changes our perspectives as readers on Miss Emily and the other characters in the story. By showing that Miss Emily lived during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, Faulkner used cultural norms to his advantage to show the souths deep ties to racism. Again, the deployment of this 19th century racism shapes the entire story, altering the way Miss Emily is treated. Emily’s death serves as an important reminder of the pain that was put into the African American community of the time period, and as a reminder of how people had to live in fear every day. 
