Response: The tradition of the Southern town (which the Griersons, at one point, called home) is one of chivalry, gossip, and conservatism. Colonel Sartoris, essential, lets Emily off of her tax evasion on the account of the fact that she is a woman- and that she can make retribution by way of china-decorating lessons. Along with this comes the expected rumor [mills] that pop up around the town to propagate the news of Miss Emily's personal life, including the burgeoning of her relationship with her "love interest", Homer Barron. Tradition, in the vein of honor, also affects the plot of "A Rose for Emily", in that where conflict would normally arise- there is only acquiescence, pity, and unarticulated fear; the council's meager attempt at convincing Emily to pay her taxes, the pharmacist's innocuous warning about the rat poison, and the community's failed efforts to find out what was going on in that "big, squarish frame house that had once been white" are all examples of how Emily's "imperviousness" stood stark and ostensibly invincible in the face of casual precedents and social norms.
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