Shirley Jackson Compare And Contrast

Many times when reading two different literary pieces, a reader is able to notice similarities and differences between the stories. In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson and “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, this assumption proves true. Although they’re two completely different stories with varying themes and purposes, the two pieces do contain similar traits that are necessary to understand the author’s intentions; specifically, both authors decided to purposefully utilize a non-participating narrator, only differing in respect to the narrator’s tone. One similarity that both literary pieces contains is the perspective of the narrator. Faulkner and Jackson opted for a non-participating narrator in order to include crucial information that the readers needed in order to comprehend the story. The main purpose of this particular narration is to convey hidden feelings and emotions of the protagonist to the audience. Both authors utilized this trait to help the reader grasp the extensive intent of the …show more content…
In “A Rose for Emily,” William voiced a subjective tone as the narrator openly expressed participation in the stories events. Words such as our in “our whole town went to her funeral” and we in “we didn’t say she was crazy then” suggests an association between the narrator and the protagonist; on the other hand, the subjectiveness of “ A Rose for Emily” disputes the objective tone lead by Shirley Jackson in “The Possibility of Evil.” Instead of conveying a personalized attitude in the story, Jackson merely grants the “basic” information that the reader needs, including only details such as “she was seventy-one” and “the perfume of roses meant home, and home meant the Strangeworth House on Pleasant Street.” These simplistic, almost negligible details convey an extremely subjective tone voiced by the