A Rose for Emily shows contrast between North and South, with references to the Civil War era and southern aristocracy. These references are deisgned to give credibility to Miss Emily as a person to be respected by the townspeople. Further references depict the southern tradition of slavery in the placement and reference to the color of people and the jobs in which they hold, where the houseman was black and did all of Miss Emily's bidding. As Ray B. West, Jr. pionts out the differences between North and South are seen in both Homer and Miss Emily. "Homer is an active man dealing with machinery and workmen - a man's man. He is a Yankee - a Northerner. Emily is a 'monument' of Southern genitility. As such she is common property of the town, bu tin a special way - as an ideal of past values."

Miss Emily is believed to have murdered Homer and kept him with her forever, or until she died. In reading the story the reader is lead to believe that Emily purchased the "cynide for rats" to kill Homer. Emily's actions seen in the last piece of the story show that she had premeditated this murder. The purchase of the silver case, the appearance of a bridal suite, and even the impression on the pillow next to Homer; these actions show that Emily really wanted to go to great lenghts to keep Homer with her and in a state of bliss for as long as she could. In this manner Emily was now in control of the man in her life and he had no choice but to stay with her.

The townspeople upon finding the corpse of Homer do not pass judgement on Miss Emily. Instead they were in awe of the inside of her house, which no one had seen, and amazed at the detail in the room in which Homer was laid in, pastel rose colors. The townspeople may have been astonished by the fact that Emily had actually been lying in the bed next to Homer as was evident by the indention in the pillow and the grey hair found there. Even in committing the murder, the townspeople still had high respect for Miss Emily because of what she represented, a historical southern lady. Because of who she was and the fact that she had become a reculse, allowed Emily to get a way with murder.