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“‘See Colonel Sartoris. I have no taxes in Jefferson.’
‘But, Miss Emily—’
‘See Colonel Sartoris.’ (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.)”
This quote from Section 1 captures the way in which Colonel Sartoris’s agreement with Emily about her taxes being remitted represents the ways in which older generations cling to outdated traditions. Even though Colonel Sartoris is dead and his time as mayor long gone, his agreement with Emily remains. The town of Jefferson exists at a crossroads between the past, which many of its citizens glorify, and the future, which they often resist. With the coming of the next generation of mayors and aldermen, the text makes it clear change is inevitable, and the end of the story suggests clinging to the past as Emily does is ultimately destructive.
“She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms, where the daughters and grand-daughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they were sent to church on Sundays with a twenty-five-cent piece for the collection plate. Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted.
Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away…”
Colonel Sartoris serves as a sort of marker in the story for the passage of time—the women who learn the art of china-painting from Emily in this passage are referred to as “the daughters and grand-daughters of Colonel Sartoris’ contemporaries,” conveying to the reader that Colonel Sartoris and his fellows, a testament to tradition, will soon give way to a new generation.
