What is the predominant issue addressed in "A Rose for Emily"?

The predominant issue addressed by Faulkner is the corruption and fall of the Old South. Emily's father and she are the metaphoric representations of the Old South's corruption, tyranny, destruction and decline, just as the family manor is equally a metaphor for the corruption, power and decline of the Old South.

In "A Rose for Emily," what larger issue does Faulkner represent through his characters?

In “A Rose For Emily,” the South undergoes as much transformation as Emily herself. In fact, her decline, in status and health, as well as her death is really a metaphor for some of these changes. Specifically, Faulkner shows that the South is confronting the bigger issues of both industrialization and social change.

To really see these change in action, take a look at Homer’s arrival. The town is getting a makeover and Homer, the company foreman, brings with him “riggers and mules and machinery.” In other words, the built environment of the South is changing; it’s becoming more modernized. What we also notice is that the atmosphere of the town is changing too: the narrator says that laughing could be heard all over the town, for example. This town is transforming, and we see this clearly in the kind of behavior which is now tolerated in outside spaces.

In addition, notice what happens after Homer’s disappearance, when Emily locks herself away inside the house. She starts giving lessons in china painting to the children of the colonel’s friends. Once these children grow up, however, she no longer has anybody to teach, because the new generation has no interest in china painting. In other words, the old ideal of accomplished young ladies is falling away.

Ultimately, through the character of Emily, Faulkner is making the point that change was inevitable in the South. Try as she might, she could not resist change, as we see through her downfall.