Hossain 1 Themes in “A Rose for Emily” The short story “A Rose for Emily” is written by the Nobel-prize winning writer William Faulkner (1897-1962). He belonged to the American South and most of his creative literary pieces like “A Rose for Emily” reflect this. He was brought up in Mississippi who later joined the Canadian and the British Royal Air Force during the First World War. He is best known for his novels like The Sound and The Fury and As I Lay Dying. He also had a short stint in Hollywood as a scriptwriter. A very interesting bit of information about the short story “A Rose for Emily” is that Alabama, the place where Ms. Emily Grierson’s relatives come from, is named after the daughter of William Faulkner himself. The story revolves around a necrophiliac woman named Ms. Emily while illuminating the decaying old south. In my paper, I am going to explore and discuss the themes in “A Rose for Emily” which include horror, isolation and the conflict between tradition and change. There are quite a few themes in the story and I believe none of them is less important. All of the themes contribute in the same proportion to make this story what it is. A balanced blend of all the elements or themes makes it a very complete and compelling literary piece and leaves the readers with so many things to talk about and reflect upon. However, among all the themes, I feel that horror is the one that gets the readers so much engaged into the story. Horror is that element of the story that elevates the graveness of the story to the next level and makes it look amazing and amusing to read. It is not horrific in Edgar Allan Poe fashion, it stands out for its own deviant way of horror storytelling. The story would never be able to deliver and render the proper impact in reader’s mind without horror in it and this is why it is one of the most prominent themes of the story. I am now going to explain how the flavor of horror is added in it.