One of the interesting techniques that Faulkner uses to develop ‘A Rose for Emily’ was his use of an unnamed narrator whose relationship to Emily and whose role in the life of the town is somewhat uncertain. Still, the reader cannot help but be curious by the way in which the narrator tells the story of Miss Emily. Faulkner constantly uses the word “we" to describe the feelings of the townspeople and their suspicions of Miss Emily. In this essay, the effect of this narrative style will be examined through close textual analysis.
In ‘A Rose for Emily,’ the author uses multiple point of view’s. First person to represent the dialogue coming directly from a character(s) in the story, which involves the use of pronouns such as I, me, we, our, and …show more content…
These "random" movements in time suggest that the narrator is an objective observer, but a closer look reveals that the narrator is actually very subjective and manipulates the story. For example, the narrator pays careful attention to the length and colour of Miss Emily's hair. After the death of her father, Miss Emily's hair is cut short; several years later "When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning (Faulkner 36).” The importance of this description is revealed in the final words of the story, when on the pillow next to Homer Barron's decayed body is found a "long strand of iron-gray hair" (Faulkner 37). The narrator also attempts to conceal Miss Emily's murder of Homer Barron by introducing the smell, which we later understand to be the decaying of Homer's body, before Homer himself enters the story, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair (Faulkner
In ‘A Rose for Emily,’ the author uses multiple point of view’s. First person to represent the dialogue coming directly from a character(s) in the story, which involves the use of pronouns such as I, me, we, our, and …show more content…
These "random" movements in time suggest that the narrator is an objective observer, but a closer look reveals that the narrator is actually very subjective and manipulates the story. For example, the narrator pays careful attention to the length and colour of Miss Emily's hair. After the death of her father, Miss Emily's hair is cut short; several years later "When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning (Faulkner 36).” The importance of this description is revealed in the final words of the story, when on the pillow next to Homer Barron's decayed body is found a "long strand of iron-gray hair" (Faulkner 37). The narrator also attempts to conceal Miss Emily's murder of Homer Barron by introducing the smell, which we later understand to be the decaying of Homer's body, before Homer himself enters the story, “Then we noticed that in the second pillow was the indentation of a head. One of us lifted something from it, and leaning forward, that faint and invisible dust dry and acrid in the nostrils, we saw a long strand of iron-gray hair (Faulkner