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"When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily. Being left alone, and a pauper, she had become humanized. Now she too would know the old thrill and the old despair of a penny more or less. The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid, as is our custom. Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as usual and with no trace of grief on her face. She told them that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body." (Faulkner, 2011).

Emily had never learned to live life on her own or make any decisions for her own life. Even though, the society around her was changing, Emily struggled within herself to adapt to the changes. When her father died, she had the inability to accept the change.

After the death of her father, Emily started to break tradition to an extent. This is symbolized by, "At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer" (Faulkner, 2011). Emily had gone against tradition in respects that Homer, her lover, was a Northerner and not one from the agrarian society Emily had grown up with. Another symbol of the tradition was that Emily required