In the story "A Rose for Emily", by William Faulkner, it is told from the first-person point of view of the people of the town. In “A Rose for Emily” the reader is first introduced to Miss Emily Grierson at the beginning of the story during her funeral. The story experiences a flashback with the narrator informing the reader of Emily's tax collection and her relationship with Homer Barron, a Northerner, who is in town for a construction project. In the next paragraphs I will discuss the following element of this tale, the motif, theme and symbol of the lock of hair, and some critical thoughts on these elements. The lock of hair in "A Rose for Emily" symbolizes the love that Emily and Homer once had and lost it when Homer left and then decided to get back with her but she decided to kill him so he will never leave again. Emily Grierson was so stubborn that she could still be happy with what she did. The lock of hair tells the story of Emily who was against her strangeness, she was trying to live her life alone and was not resigned to the behavior she had, without worrying about how harmful it was to the approval of others. The narrator finds a lock of hair when they discover Homer Barron's body when Miss Emily kept him in her house in a room where no one could see him. After his disappearance they decided to wait and go and open the room which had remained closed for almost forty years. When they entered the room they saw a body lying on the bed, the skin had already disappeared and the only thing that could be seen was the shape of a body with bones. They got closer and saw an indentation of Emily's head on the pillow with a long lock of iron-gray hair. They knew that Miss Emily slept with him every night. Audrey Binder sees E... in the center of the paper... she would go to sleep with him every night. The reason for the story was that Emily wanted to have Homer for the rest of her life, but when he left she went to buy poison to kill him and he never left her again. Homer's character in the story you can't really tell if he was gay or not. Works Cited Cesare, Judith. "Faulkner's gay Homer, again." Explainer 68.3 (2010): 195-198. Academic research completed. Web April 16, 2014.Binder, Aubrey. “Uncovering the Past: The Role of Dust Images in A ROSE FOR EMILY.” Explainer70.1 (2012): 5-7. Academic research completed. Network. April 16, 2014.Scherting, Jack. “Emily Grierson's Oedipus Complex: Motif, Motif, and Meaning in Faulkner's 'ARose For Emily'.” Studies in Short Fiction 17.4 (1980): 397. Plus.Web Literary Reference Center. April 7, 2014 Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily" Ninth edition 2011