Symbolism runs rampant in William Faulkner's unforgettable Southern gothic short story "A Rose for Emily." Faulkner begins his symbolic references in the first two paragraphs when he describes the Grierson house.
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 our most 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.
The Grierson house serves as a symbol of the dying Old South: Like the South in the days before the terrible Confederate defeat at Gettysburg, the house was once a proud example of fine architecture that had slowly eroded as the modern world surrounded it.
Homer Barron, the Yankee visitor, is a symbol of the new Northern encroachment upon the South--a modern day carpetbagger or scalawag who moves to the area for financial gain, meddles with the social establishment, then moves on to enjoy his profits elsewhere. Unlike the original carpetbaggers who plagued the South during Reconstruction, however, Homer was well-liked and popular with the townspeople, though his time was to be limited in Jefferson.
Emily's servant, Tobe, is also an obvious symbol of the last remnants of slavery. He remains with Emily until her death, and only then is his servitude finalized. When Emily dies, Tobe gains his freedom.
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