What metaphor is used to describe Miss Emily in the first paragraph?

Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" begins with this line:

"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house"

Here, Miss Emily is compared to a fallen monument, the sort of thing people have respect for, but likely no real affection or love. This makes it an appropriate...

Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" begins with this line:

"When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral: the men through a sort of respectful affection for a fallen monument, the women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of her house"

Here, Miss Emily is compared to a fallen monument, the sort of thing people have respect for, but likely no real affection or love. This makes it an appropriate metaphor for Miss Emily in a number of ways.

For one, the phrase "fallen monument" suggests age and an older time period that has ended. This certainly applies to Miss Emily, who was emblematic throughout her life of life in the antebellum South. Everything from keeping up her family's proud, aristocratic ways to her refusal to pay the taxes that have been forgiven by the kindly alderman demonstrate that Emily is living in an older time.

Miss Emily can also be viewed as a fallen monument due to her place in the town's mythology. Between her pride and her reclusive ways, she is very much on the outside of the action and relationships of the town. Just as a monument is untouchable and distant from everyday lives, Miss Emily had no strong connections or love with any of the townspeople. The narrator suggests a strong "us vs her" sentiment and this demonstrates the distance between Miss Emily and the people of the town.