A symbol is a person, character or a object in a story used to represent an idea. In the short story, A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, the symbols reinforce the themes of tradition vs. progress, decay and the passage of time, and love that is not returned. Emily Grierson, her father, Colonel Grierson and Colonel Sartoris, now deceased, represent the Old South. They contrast with the new middle class that is represented by the new Board of Alderman, coming to collect disputed taxes. Homer Barron also symbolizes change and the middle class of society. The themes of change and decay are seen through Emily's stubborn ways and her deteriorating mental and physical character as well as through her possessions and through her relationships. Emily is one of the last "traces" left of the Old South. In fact, Emily is deceased at the beginning of the story and the story is a flashback of her tragic life.
             Emily's house represents Emily's changing lifestyle, while indirectly representing the Old South. Both Emily and the house were once bright, beautiful and dignified, symbols of the Old Order. Her father was overly protective of Emily, keeping her in the house, while the world outside was changing rapidly. "It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on what had once been a select street. But garages and cotton gins had encroached and obliterated even the august names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline pumps-an eyesore among eyesores." (pp. 26-27) The house itself is decaying much like Emily, "It smelled of dust and disuse-a close, dank smell." (p. 27) Even the furniture was cracked and dusty. It is getting old like Emily. "It [the parlor] was furnished in heavy, leather -covered furniture. . . .t...