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Please answer one of the following questions. Please refer to the text in your response.
For what reasons might the story be told from such an atypical point of view (1st person plural “we”)?
What might be reasons for the nonlinear timeline of this story?
116 thoughts on “Week 4”
The story “A Rose for Emily” is a story told about a reclusive woman who stubbornly fights the progression of society around her and clings to whomever she can to fill the hole left by her oppressive and controlling father after his death. The story is written in the first person plural. This is because the author is telling the story from the towns perspective, so it seems as though the town and its people are telling the story. This is done, possibly to create a whole time line of Emily’s life as no one person or group of people in the town could do so as she was so stubbornly isolated. This kind of narrative also allows the author to illustrate the town as an entity. The town is a character that is created through the ideas and expressions about Emily.
The author also write this story in a winding timeline that starts at Emily’s death and meanders through her life. The author does this to keep the reading unaware of the surprising ending. Emily’s life is rather boring and dull. She is a hermit, who is locked up in an ugly house, which is like by no one and could be a metaphor for Emily herself, and refuses to be in contact with anyone. While there are interesting bits and small events the story of Emily is a hard one to keep readers engaged. I believe the author jumps from time to time in her life to give context to the events that unfold at her death and to keep readers invested in the story as more and more imagery is used to show that something about Emily isn’t quite right.
EliF, this is a very good discussion about the function of the function of the unusual point of view. It always reminds me a bit of how people talk about someone at a wake, piecing together events in the deceased’s life from their own personal memories. You are also correct that the author, a master writer, had some practical reasons for distorting the timeline. Miss Emily herself also lives in a time-distorted reality, which might be another, more artistic reason. Thanks for starting things off so well for the week!
I totally agree Elif, from the narrator representing the entity of the town, to the strategic placement of events in the story. The structure of the story was definitely affective to me in keeping me in the dark until the end, as the ending plot genuinely surprised me, and I found myself at times believing what the town thought (such as her buying cyanide to end her life), which is to show that despite the reader knowing that the town misjudged Emily many times, even they can make the mistake of siding toward them and not fully being able to understand her situation.
Your statement was well analyzed. Not only is the narrative of this story unusual on every level, but it also seems that the author is telling the readers that the small town tends to have a collective consciousness. For example, he uses “we believe” like they all agree about Emily’s selfish behavior toward the community and her mysterious nature. In my opinion though Elif, the author gave details about the beginning of Emily’s life and how her life ends.
Fatu, please address comments to others by name so we can all be part of the conversation. Thanks!
Elif, I like how you brought up how Emily’s house can be seen as a metaphor for herself. Her house compared to the others in the neighborhood stands out, even as far as to say an eyesore among eyesores. Emily herself stands out amongst the people in her neighborhood because of how isolated she is, it creates a mystic air about her. Frankly, she was just mentally ill but because she was so isolated her story seems more tragic. We only know her from the perspective of others.
Hello EliF, I have to disagree with you on the first part of your discussion, she doesn’t, “clings to whomever she can…” as it is mention there were a lot of boys wanting to date her, but she never consider any of them to be good enough, in some way, she only clings to those who are worthy of her. I agree on the other half part, no one could know Emily as she was so stubborn and isolated, this just leaving the people to guess thing about her based on the glimpse they had about her life.
Elif, I totally agree with your story analysis and actually had the same tp comment about it, the author strategy totally work because i was focused on the story all the way through giving little though to the fact that Homer was not seen again since he entered her home. This made the time line change work so well because the reader is thrown off from key details that are essential to pay attention to because of the town perspective and the time line change
Hey Efif, after reading your discussion, I cannot agree with you anymore. Throughout this story, Ms.Emily always felt alone after living such a boring life because of how strict her father was. Therefore, she always distanced herself from everyone else. Another thing that you mentioned that I also agree with is the way the story was told. In the short lecture, it explains that no one single person had the entire story and therefore the story could have only been told through the perspective of the town as a whole. Also what you mentioned about why the story was not told in chronological order was good. As stated in the short lecture, the story was told in a different order to avoid spilling the interesting parts of it so soon. Overall, you seem to have a very good analysis of the story and explain in detail what it was about.
ELiF, I agree with your statement. that stubbornness is definitely evident which I feel almost helps as a coping mechanism. I also love how you described the town as a character, fro the way the story is narrated and I never thought of it that way. It’s an interesting story line that can be interpreted in many different ways and this one for me is one of the best.
“A Rose for Emily” was told from an atypical stand point for the readers to understand how the town viewed Emily Rose. Based on the reading, Emily was stubborn, broken and reclusive. Whenever she did leave her house she was very demanding and only wanted her way. Even when people tried to help her or make her life easier, she seemed to only go deeper into her shell. Another possible reason the story could’ve been told from an atypical view is because Emily Rose died in her house and because people were so involved in her life and story they were able to put the pieces together for themselves and for us as readers also. It’s almost as if the “we” perspective was used so that we may also feel pity and sympathy for such a fragile woman who only wanted to be loved and adored despite her decisions and how closed off she was from the townspeople. For example, “Poor Emily”, was a frequent statement used in this story and I believe it was to show us that Emily wasn’t hated or disliked by the town people but more of a woman who came from such “noble obligee” wasn’t supposed to live.
Regina , you made a good point that. I also want to point out the the term “We” was use to make the reader become part of town folks and make the reader easily fit into the story time line. I think it helps the reader to immerse into the timeline, not just as a reader but as we are there with the town folks. I think it is very brilliant way to make the story immerse and hide some secrets as we become part of the story, we are more incline to think the way Faulkner want us to think. He was able to make us feel pity for Emily as the story progress and he constricted our thought process to the same of the town , which is the controllable variable to him and He was able to manipulate our feeling as he wanted.
Regina, you brought up some very valid points of the story. Emily was very stubborn she was stuck. While everyone was going on with their lives she stood isolated from the world. I will share a personal story in reference to this. A couple years back I was in California for vacation and went to see the Infinity Mirrors exhibit in The Broad museum in Los Angeles. It was beautiful. You would enter the room in complete darkness walk down a corridor that comes to a stop in a reflecting pool with mirrors and lights everywhere. It gave such a feeling and illusion of time and how it goes on forever, yet you cannot go any further because you are paused right at the end of the corridor. While read this story I thought of that memory. That is probably how she felt reaching out for a spark of hope and joy to fill the void in her heart. Time would move on forever and she was frozen in her realm. I like that you addressed the events where people tried to reach out yet her stubbornness prevented her from seeing another way. That is what makes this story such a tragedy. The reader would see how her life deteriorated just like her home. Lastly, although her acts were horrible and morbid it was good that you were able to point out that all she wanted was to be loved.
While reading “A rose for Emily”, prior to any lecture or literary analysis, it stuck to me how the story seemed like a combination of 1st and 3rd person omniscient. Using words such as we, not being fully aware of Emily, yet speaking on behalf for many people (even embodying the town as a whole often) and talking about how the people felt, the unnamed narrator seems to show a interesting combination of both. The symbolism behind the narrator seems to be that instead of a individual, it seems to embody the town as a whole. Having this symbolic representation of the town narrating over the little it knows of Emily provides unique insight. For instance, the narrator seems to pity Emily, at times dehumanize her, criticize her, or help her. The town as a whole, despite thinking they are a positive force that did their best to help this poor, doomed soul, are a large reason behind the wretchedness of Emily’s life. For this reason the story is called “A rose for Emily” as the town as a whole failed to be there for Emily during her hard times, especially with her father, and lack of a love life/family as a young women.
Jonathan, you made a good point with the perspective of the author and narrator. The author is trying to tell the story from the towns perspective, which you also bring up. I like that you bring up the metaphor the author employs in the title. I didn’t see that in my first read and i agree that the author uses the title to tell readers that the town is only interested in the drama of Emily’s life and not in helping. This shows how mob mentality can be so harmful to individuals the mob has deem unfit for the group. I think its important to bring up that this apathetic feeling of the town is why she ended up killing her “husband”. She was so devoid of interaction that she killed him so he could never leave her.
In my opinion, the reason why the story of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is unconventional is because the narrator is seemingly speaking for the entire town, or one person is sharing multiple angles beamed from speculations. In this story, the unnamed narrator paints unimaginable dark images, such as a crumbled mansion and a mysterious woman named Emily, who is the daughter of the town patron. Emily’s arrogance and aristocratic behavior makes the townspeople feel pity for her, not because they feel sorry for her, but because they resent her. At the same time, this story is unusual at every level. For example, when the town complains about the strong smell that was coming from her house, the colonel has no choice but to send people to clean it by going through the back door because of her nobility. I think the author told the story in chronological order to create a suspense for the readers. She is trying to freeze time and live in an alternative reality.
Hey Fatu, I really appreciate your analysis of where the townspeople’s pity stems from and I agree 100%. I also agree that the narrator is just a body of different speculations shared throughout the town. The part where you said the colonel sends people to clean up by going through the back because of her nobility, I was thinking he did that more so out of respect of her being a lady and not wanting to shame her but now you have me thinking maybe it was otherwise?.
Fatu! I agree with you that the story is being told from the entire town and beamed with speculations. Yes, the behavior of Emily resulted in the townspeople feeling pity for her because they resent her. Your analysis of why the Colonel sent people to clean up the stench that was coming from Emily’s house makes sense, I thought they used the backdoor because they knew she would not have willingly allow them through the front door into her house. Emily is actually living in the past while the world is changing and people are going about their lives.
Fatu I agree with what you are saying about Emily trying to freeze time and live in an alternative reality. Emily proves she is trying to freeze time and live in the past when the city authorities come to confront her about her taxes and she tells them to see Colonel Sartoris who had been dead almost ten years. Miss Emily does not live in the present she lives in the past and expects nothing to change.
Fatu, I also noticed that the setting of the story is very old and a little spooky. From the smell, secrets, dust all round and the fact that there was a slave or servant means that the time period of this story was set long ago were things were simple and not Analyzed the way we do today. The people of the town though she was odd and strange and had no though of her possibly suffering from mental health issues.
The story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a haunting story about a woman that had suffered from trauma at the hands of her father and was mentally unstable or ill. Throughout the story we get bits and pieces about Emily’s life, she was very isolated, stubborn, and controlling. Emily’s father was domineering and stunted her ability to become her person so it makes sense that she would get that controlling aspect from him. However, Emily’s story is tragic in the fact that she was holding onto the love and corpse of Homer. I find it interesting that the story is written in the 1st person plural because we as the reader only know so much about Emily as the town does. We are reading the story from the town’s perspective instead of Emily’s which makes me wonder how she felt about the events that unfolded in her life.
Serafina, your comments are almost the same as what I just wrote in response to Fatu, above! We as readers become like the townspeople. Like the townspeople, we don’t know really know Miss Emily or possess insight into her feelings and experience. Like the townspeople, we take in the gossip that comes from all quarters and try to re-create the story of a life.
Hi Serafina! I agree that “we as the reader only know so much about Emily as the town does.” The story describes many of Emily’s negative qualities, such as being “fat,” but does not describes her true character. In addition, the narrator in the story never had a conversation with Emily or was close to her, so it is difficult to really understand what kind of person she is. What we know about her is only the observation of townspeople, but it would be interesting to know better her feelings and her character.
Serafina, I agree with how the story was narrated. It isn’t 3rd person omniscient like a typical story where we get to know the minds of every character, but it is 1st person plural as if we were the townspeople and we were just as in the dark as the townspeople were so it’s an interesting form of writing and formation of timeline as well.
In “A Rose for Emily” by Thomas Faulkner, the atypical way the story is told sets a barrier-like tone between the town and Emily. I think the story is told this way to, first, give the reader an idea of the two different worlds enclosed in this story. There is Emily’s, which we don’t know much about except that it has more-or-less remained the same since her father’s death, and the townspeople who are sort of an ever-changing monolith. Another reason I think the author chose this point of view to tell the story is to keep the reader uncertain of the direction the story was headed in. I think any other point of view might have spoiled the ending because the narrator would have always been a little too close to Emily not to notice what was going on. Lastly, I think the author chose this point of view to foreshadow just how much no one in the town really knew who Emily was even though they gossiped about her life as if they might have lived it themselves.
William Faulkner*
Antonia, thank you for this very good three-part response to the week’s question. I think all three of your reasons factor into the author’s decision. Two of your reasons relate to the theme of isolation that pervades the story, while another of your reasons rightly points to the author’s practical desire to keep readers from suspecting the ending. I like your description of Emily as unchanging and the town as “an ever-changing monolith.” The town, though maybe not as stuck in time as Emily, seems to move and change with one single mind.
Antonia! I agree with your comment on the way the narrator tells the story. This story as you mentioned gives readers the story from Emily’s world which is stagnant since her father’s death and the town, which is changing with time. As you mentioned, the author choose this point of view to show how the town people never really knew Emily but speculated on every aspect of her life. This tragic and horrific story portray common elements that takes place in reality, as many people speculate one’s life even though they really do not know them.
The story “A Rose for Emily” is a story that is been told in a first person setting, but for what reasons might the story be told from such an atypical point of view using “we”? Since the beginning of the story, it’s clear that there are rumors going around at Emily’s funeral. As we enter the story its mentioned to us that Emily is someone who doesn’t leave her house, having a man going out for the groceries. The story focus on her all the time, but as a gossip going around the town, I believe one reason maybe this way is because, as the author said, “He is expressing how… his invented character began to take on a life of her own…” as this is true for the author, how could he know what actually is going on in her life, just as we cannot know what’s going on with others life’s other than our own. He is in some way part of the town population, as he is hearing the stories of her going around, the author himself is creating a story on his own head about it, based on what he hears and the town’s own believes. Another reason I believable the author may use this setting of “We”, this actually goes in hand with my previous statement, is because he intends to make us the readers part of his story, one more character of his book. We are being there, living in the town, listening to the gossips of Emily, creating the story in our heads about Emily. Either one of these possible intentions of the author, must have been difficult to make and riskier to introduce to any audience, but I believe is what made the story special and different.
Jon, I disagree with you when you say that the story is being told in a first person setting. It was more like a 3rd person setting. There was multiple perspective from different town people. And that is what made the story better. We never actually know what Emily was thinking throughout the story.
Jon, thanks for the good comments. Your emphasis on how gossip becomes the main source of information about Miss Emily is important. We realize that the whole story is hearsay undiluted by any of Miss Emily’s own personal feelings or response. And yes, I do think the “we” point of view makes us all part of the town as go through the same conflicted emotions about Emily and her fate. Where did you get the Faulkner quote?
Hi Jon. It’s true that as the readers we are creating a story in our head about Emily. I like how you said that ….”his invented character began to take on a life of her own.” This reminds me of something that children do sometimes. I can’t speak for everyone but I know that when I was a kid, and I was at a lack of information about a person or a place, me and some of my friends would just let our imagination take flight. Like for instance, that huge house on the corner that everyone would say was haunted (but none of us had every seen anything happen there.) or, that mean old man who was rumored to actually be a warlock and would be seen walking around the neighborhood after midnight, (although none of us actually witnessed this). Our minds don’t like not knowing something so we tend to fill it u even if it’s hearsay because it’s more interesting than not knowing. I believe this is what the towns people where doing with there gossiping and hence this is what we are doing when we are creating our version of what the real Emily might have been like. What i’m trying to say is that we as readers are left to create our own backdrop about what happened to Emily that pushed her to a place to create such a heinous act. I enjoyed reading your perspective.
Hello Jon, I like all 3 of your reasons to why Faulkner might have wrote this story with such a atypical point of view using we. I especially agree with what u said about the author putting himself into the story as one of the townspeople, i believe that was the only way for him to fully tell the story of Emily’s life. Him putting himself in the townspeople shoes made him a part of Emily’s life too and he was learning more and more of her life as the townspeople told the story. I too noticed that we as the reader also become part of the story as it grasps us with the suspense of what the townspeople are gong to say next about miss Emily
In my opinion, I feel like the reasons for the nonlinear timeline of this story is because it was a better way to tell the story. It brought suspicion to it and it made me want to keep reading. And the multiple points of views of each town person/individually. This story is being told by other people not the actual Emily. So at the end of the story, I’m still wondering what Emily was thinking throughout everything.
Nicole, please read “Information about Discussion Boards” in COURSE INFORMATION. I want everyone to get full credit for their posts in this forum, but you must follow the guidelines for length requirements.
I believe the text “A Rose for Emily” by “William Faulkner” chose a nonlinear timeline for this story is too make the reader figure out the events leading up to the end. It first goes into her death and showing how the town felt for her and out of curiosity went to her house to see the inside since no one ever went inside. Then it proceeds to talk about how outdated the house is and how Miss Emily too was outdated. For example when the towns people came to mail her a tax notice she was still under the impression “Colonel Sartoris” was still mayor but it was reveled he had died 10 years ago. As you can see the timeline went back when she was alive. It then dives into her fathers death and Mrs Emily was being in denial of her fathers death. Honestly the throwing off timeline made this story more interesting because they were times where I had to go back and reread and surprised at some details I didn’t catch at first.
Brian, yes, as you note, the timeline of events is hard to keep straight in this story, which goes back and forth in time. The theme of time itself is significant in the story, as well. When I first read the story I too found myself rereading and trying to clarify the order of events. I think I gave up though. You point out the practical reason the author would do this, while also noting that the distortion lends interest and mystery to the story.
Brian, I agree with you. There were some things I did not understand when I first read it. The story began with her death and traced her life into the past as she read. The author seemed to tempt us readers to create that chronology. It was not clearly stated when the event happened, only the only passage where Captain Sartris was exempt from Emily’s tax. It was very difficult for me to reread it many times and rearrange what happened to her by counting back from her age at the time of her death.
I think the story “A Rose for Emily” might be told from such an atypical point of view in order to bring the reader closer to the events in the story, as well as make the reader follow the same mindset as the townspeople. It seems to me that the first-person point of view in the story makes the reader associate him/herself with the townspeople. Moreover, the first-person plural “we” shows the reader that the whole town is gossiping about Emily, thereby allowing us to understand the different points of view of people in the town. Interestingly, such an atypical point of view prevents us from getting to know the protagonist better and forces the reader to keep Miss Emily at a mysterious distance. We see Emily through the voice of town, which tells the story of her life observed by the people around her, but it would be interesting to know Emily’s feelings and thoughts because everything we know about her from the story is the result of observation.
Altynai, yes, the “we” point of view does serve to transform us as readers into members of the town. As in “The Most Handsome Drowned Man,” the women have different perspectives than the men, but all work together to piece the story of a life. However, all the pieces are scraps of gossip uninformed by any true and personal knowledge or understanding of Miss Emily.
Hi Altunai. I honestly had not thought about us readers following the same mindset of the towns people. It’s interesting because most of the works I have read strive to personalize the main character for the readers and this story didn’t do that at all. I think the lack of personalizing her made the story even more creepy. I mean, If I new Emily and was part of the gossiping going on, I probably would have stayed away from her at all cost thinking I might be next, but in the story you don’t get a feeling that Emily even cared at all.That could have been a protective mechanism but even that does’t make you kill your boyfriend, so either way there was a breakdown for her somewhere that the town people noticed, unless she was born with mental illness. Either way we are left but only to speculate. Thanks for your perspective.
The story ” A Rose for Emily” is a story about a tragic, lonely women thanks to her selfish father. The story is written in the first person plural ”we” because there is on one in the town who can tell Emily’s story for starting to ending. The town is piecing together Emily’s life as a whole through speculations. The story starts off from a backwards position and then moves forward. I think the narrator choose this order of timeline because Ms. Emily is stuck in time as she refuses to change with the changing time. This can be seen in her refusal to have a modernize mail box installed on her house and she still thinks that the Mayor who is dead is the current mayor. This is all due to her selfish father who prevented any man from courting his daughter, which caused her to live a fearful and isolated life.
Treshel, I’m so glad you mention how the nonlinear plot of the story also highlights the theme of time so prevalent in the story. As you note, Miss Emily is “stuck in time.” The world changes around her, but she refuses to move with that new world. Some critics see this story set in the post-Civil War era as being rich in symbolism about the “Old” and “New” South. I prefer to read the story as one about a tragic and complex character, but we definitely do see societal changes, especially generational ones. I agree that it is fitting for a story about distorted time to be told in a distorted or nonlinear timeline. Thanks for a great post!
HI Treshel I completely agree with your statement. I think that after Emily’s father passed away she tried to get her life back in some way. She didn’t exactly do it in the best way but she did the only way she thought she knew how. Emily’s life was clearly ruined greatly by her fathers actions and she probably felt a great sense of relief after his death but she also doesn’t have a lot of social experience which is what led her to do something so horrible. She was not psychologically capable of navigating the world by herself.
Treshel, I agree with what you mentioned in your post because the story is not written in any POV except 1st person. The other reason I agree with your statement is about how miss Emily got to live the life she wants after her father passed away. Miss Emily was stuck between time and circumstance, that’s why the nonlinear timeline of the story because reflects her nonlinear life, by no man interacting with her by her father protecting her from them.
What might be reasons for the nonlinear timeline of this story?
I think the author was giving life to this corpse as he told her story backwards. I think that by doing this he was giving Emily a personal story,..not just the “we” as it is told on the outside, but a more personal view of Emily through this timeline. “We” get to see why Emily was driven to do the most of abhorrent acts. Was is the absence of a mother?
(which I did not find mentioned in the text but correct me if it is please,) was is the aunt who had dementia and was the female figure in her life? was if her overbearing father who basically expressed to her, her every waking day that while there was life in him, he controlled her dreadful life? I believe so. Emily was stuck between time and circumstance, that’s why the nonlinear timeline of the story, because it reflects her non -linear life, meaning there was no smooth development for her, life did not progress as the norm from one stage to the next. Emily could not change because she was in a time warp. I don’t even know if it was more a mental disorder or more of mental family dysfunction but in the end, she ended up so detached from the real world that she hung on to it through Homers corps. Homer represented the change the she would never accept, so she killed him to keep him with her and keep the progressing world outside.
Janine, thank you for answering this question in particular because it helped understand a better definition of what a nonlinear timeline may consist of. I agree with the fact that the author/narrator designed this story in a way where we could understand why Emily killed her husband in the in. The random timelines helped represent a story structure that would help us understand what took place in different parts of Emily’s life to give us the conclusion in the end.
In Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily”, all the elements of a classic tragedy are present. The story begins and ends with the death of the main character with memories of her life narrated throughout. Professor Conway stated in the short lecture slides, “these remarks by Faulkner also point to what is at the heart of the tragedy”. This metaphor was important because it emphasizes the essence of the story where several events lead to the change of the main characters’ outcome from good to bad, an inescapable doom. It seems that the town was so involved with what Emily did in her life. There were many speculations and opinions, a bunch of nosey neighbors looking for the next sliver of juicy gossip. Yet, no one really did know her, except for the small events presented throughout her life. Narrating the story in first person plural was a perfect representation of what the reader would directly experience had they been a member of the town. The reader would not know Emily directly. They would piece together the mystery by gathering tidbits of information around town. Perhaps, she would have had a different life had it not been for the dysfunctional relationship with her father. Emily’s father took away all possibilities of any future for her finding love and making a family of her own. One interesting part was the family photo that was taken with the father holding a horsewhip. It was as if he had the reins of Emily’s life. When he passed away, his egocentric desires left Emily with nothing but miserable loneliness in her thirties. It was difficult to understand her, considering she was always secluded indoors, especially since the passing of her father. That is, until Homer Barron came into the picture. There were very few circumstances when Emily was seen. One noteworthy moment was the horse buggy ride around town with her prospective suitor. Whether intentional, or not, one could not help but to imagine this being the opportunity where Emily takes the reins of her own life, regardless of how many tongues would wag. Emily would do anything to fulfill her tragic loneliness, even poisoning the eternal bachelor, Barron, with a lovely dose of arsenic.
Faulkner did not follow a chronological format in this story. Rather, he jumped back and forth for a few reasons. The author wanted to engage the reader without giving everything away at once. This allows the reader to comb through the small details and put together the mystery of who Emily was and what events transpired. This detail was important as the story unfolded. The suspenseful tension remained until the reader would arrive at the shocking, horrific discovery where the actions of Emily expose her lifelong suffering and the twisted reality of her life. Faulkner wanted the reader to get a sense of time. The town was changing and growing as different generations came and went. Emily was stuck in a place where time stood and nothing changed, when in reality everything was decaying around her.
Juan, thank you for this thorough and insightful post. You present very good rationale for use of both the nonlinear timeline and the unusual narrative voice. You’ve also mentioned some interesting scenes from the story, which place us in the shoes of the townspeople as we observe Miss Emily and her stubborn and determined ways. I appreciate your comment about how the author wanted readers to get a sense of Miss Emily’s distorted experience of time. As you point out, we as readers also find ourselves unsure about the passage of time, unable to quite create a consistent timeline.
I believe the storyline of the story “A Rose For Emily” is told out of chronological order to make the reader understand every aspect of Emily’s life leading to her death. it also creates a mystery and makes the reader feel apart of the neighborhood. In the beginning, readers are thrown information about Miss Emily’s death and how the town was present at her funeral. As the story is being told, readers are given bits and pieces of major events of her Miss Emily’s life witnessed by the narrator/town. It is as if us readers are apart of the neighborhood being told “town gossip” on her. Certain events such as her father’s death and being in denial of it, buying rat poisoning and starting the relationship with Homer Barron, increased the whole town’s curiosity on why she acted the way she did and why her house smelled poorly. It was clear that miss Emily was stubborn and a little crazy but couldn’t figure out why up until the end. The story revisits the current time of her death. Some people of the town went inside of her house to inspect it and found the corpse of Homer Barron on a bed of a room. This revealed a reason as to why her house smelled so bad. It also revealed Miss Emily’s necrophilia after finding a strand of her hair next the pillow of the corpse. The non-linear timeline helped create and solve this mystery and keep readers interested in the story.
Hey Sheilaya, I never thought of the story as a mystery but that definitely defines this story! As I read the story I felt like I was reading a downfall of someones life and being brought to this dead character through out the whole story. More like a drama to me but I can definitely see the mystery with the smell and the arsenic!
Sheilaya, thanks for the good comments about the nonlinear plot in the story. I don’t believe that readers—or the townspeople—ever understand every aspect of Miss Emily’s life, but I do agree that the selection of remembered scenes adds a sense of mystery to the story of a mysterious woman. And, as you note, the nonlinear plot keeps readers from guessing at the gruesome ending.
Hello Sheilaya,
I agree it went in chronological order, as you’re reading, you’re getting bits and pieces of information of who Miss Emily is and how the townspeople feel about her. I believe her being so isolated led her to make the decisions such as not wanting to bury her father and buying the rat poison and keeping Homer’s body locked in the room. She became what the townspeople thought of her.
Sheilaya, it’s interesting you portrayed the story as mystery I personally never saw it that way. I can see where you’re coming from when you say that the non linear timeline helped crate and solve the mystery and keep us interested. It’s like putting the pieces together that leads to the main point but we get them in different times so it does keep things intriguing up until the end.
The story “A Rose For Emily” was written in the industrial era about a stubborn lonely woman that refused to change with the changing world. The author writes this story in a distorted timeline which begins and ends with Miss Emily’s death, the author most probably writes the story in this order so we can recall all the memories of Emily’s lonely shuttered life through the townspeople, the author wanted the readers to see the townspeople’s different views on Emily and how she chose to live her life seeing as no one person by themselves could tell Emily’s full story.The author also wants us to understand the influence Emily’s father had on her lonely life leading up even to the gruesome ending.
This atypical 1st person point of view writing style was used because miss Emily’s story was told by the townspeople since no one person knew her full story.
Reuben, I’m glad you mention Miss Emily’s staunch determination to live her life as she sees fit, regardless of the town’s opinion. Even as we question her unwillingness to change, her stubbornness, and her final, deadly act, I think we have, along with our pity, some admiration for her strength, given the tragic circumstances of her life.
In “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, It is the lonely story of Miss Emily Grierson, who was deprived of his marriage by a formal and domineering father and forced to end his life as a bachelor. But it begins in the present of the story of her death and funeral and traces her life back to the past. She never interacted with the people of the city even after her father died. The author shows the essence of human beings naked through the characters City People, Slave, and Emily in this story. Narrators in a small community called Jefferson in the southern United States use the first-person plural. It is reorganizing the Miss Emily statue from going to Miss Emily’s funeral and seeing and hearing her community rumors about her and “we” herself in person. So I think the emphasis is on the narrator rather than whether the Miss Emily image that this narrator talks about is her true form.
The story “A Rose for Emily” was told from an atypical point of view because that is how they viewed emily. Towards the end of the story we find out how distured she actually was but that can easily be traced back to her relationship with her father. The townspeople look at her as nasty and weird so that’s how the story was told. After Emily’s father died the narrator explained she seemed to have been happy about it which led her to seek comfort in a corpse to try and take back what her father stole from her. It’s told in an atypical way because it’s an atypical situation and Emily herself is very atypical.
” A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is a short story about a woman who lived in Era of post Civil war and fall victim of failure to adapt to changes and it is told by the manner of nonlinear timeline. The story started at the near end of the story’s timeline and it recalls the story as it progress in nonlinear fashion. The way the story is told help Faulkner to mixed up the progress of the story and hide some obvious answers and it was able to built up for the suspense and manipulate the thought process of the readers. Another reason is that, Faulkner wants the reader to become part of the town-folks as the town start recalling the memory of Emily. When we think of the past, we almost never think of it in linear-timeline. We think of it vividly and recall it as the dots connect the timeline and connect them as we see fit. it help the story achieve the goal of making the reader become the town itself.
Hi Thanlwin! I agree with you and it is a great point of view, I also believe that because the author wants only to intrigue the readers, and yes as you said to have the same view as the whole town. Good analysis!
Gabriela, please see length requirements for Dbs.
Hey Thanlwin
You gave a good analysis that helped me realize that when people speak of the past it tends to not be so organized and I can relate to this myself and it makes sense to me. The points of view often change, for example, from the women in the town who were curious and gossiped about her; to the town officials and their own experiences that they had with Miss Emily the timeline shifts. I personally found that I enjoyed this short story more than previous ones because of the way that it built up to the final ending was interesting and made me so engaged in the story and in Miss Emily, I hope that maybe somehow it would result in a happy ending for her but I was wrong and the ending was grotesque! In the ending it shows she was crazy just as the townspeople believed.
” A Rose for Emily” uses a nonlinear timeline to tell Emily’s story in a suspenseful way and add the drama. Instead of starting at the beginning of her life, we start moments before she’s passed and hid herself from society with the bad smell coming from her house. We then find out she’s been like this since her father died and her lover went away. Then we find out after how she reacts to her fathers death, with this we can see she’s very stubborn, in denial about the things around her. I could tell she lived in the past when they went to her house to talk about what she owes and she told them no and that she’d like to talk “see Colonel Sartoris” but he had been dead for 10 years. Instead of saying flat out that her lover was a sexual scandal, they build up to that point and add in the towns peoples POV. Soon enough at the end of the story it’s revealed the rancid smell was the lovers dead body and at this point it had been over 30 years, crazy part is she slept with it every night, indicated by a dent in the pillow next to it. This nonlinear story line gives a chance to tell the story of her life in different parts as she has died. It builds her character and why Emily was the way she was. It gives the events leading up to her downfall from society.
I believe that the timeline of the story is nonlinear because of many reasons. First I think that Faulkner did it to hook us in start off with something that we the reader would want to learn more about and progresses from there to learn more and more about the depressing life of Miss Emily. Another reason why I believe the choice of going with a nonlinear timeline was because of how different of life Miss Emily has lived and for the story to best describe her was to go with a not normal year by year timeline. By doing this we can see a correlation between the unfortunate life that Miss Emily has lived which is quite different to so many, and going with a non linear timeline. All in all it was a very interesting story and I believe that the decision by the author was obviously calculated and made to bring the story and the characters all together.
I agree with you Neil, it does seem like Miss Emily’s unfortunate and abnormal life is reflected in the nonlinear story telling. I think a key part of that is that the isolation that she chose to live her life in means that the town’s recollection of her is going to be in scattered moments and events that can’t be explained in one congruent story. Overall, it does bring the story and characters together like you say.
Neil I never really thought of the author writing it in third person to hook us in so that was a great reason as to why the author wrote the story non linear. I was so into the story I didn’t realize that that reeling us in was the goal. I also like the second reason you gave about how the author didn’t give a regular timeline because the author was trying to show the best way to describe Emily.
Mark, the story is not written in the third person. Also, please do not just compliment another student. Try to enlarge the conversation with some ideas of your own.
Hey Neil, I agree with you. I believe if the Faulkner had written the story year by year it would have been boring. This is because as we follow the life of Emily we come to find that she has been living mostly with her dad. Starting the story when her father is dead and she doesn’t really know how to interact with others is a better way to catch the readers attention.
“A Rose for Emily” uses a first person plural point of view to better immerse us in the setting. The entire story could have been written in the the third person perspective focusing on Emily herself, but writing it as the town changes background characters into narrators, almost as if the reader themself is a part of the town. Rather than introducing a separate individual narrator character and adding unnecessary complexity, Faulkner keeps the focus on Emily while still giving the story a personalizing aspect through the form of a narrator. This also allows the story to span over a wide period of time without having to provide unnecessary details about how the narrator knows what they do.
I agree with you for the most part. One of the most effective ways to get the reader immersed into the story is by telling it from a perspective we can understand, first person. We live our lives in first person so it would make complete sense that when reading a story in such a view that we will feel more in tuned with it. Your whole idea that telling the story from the perspective of the town turns the townpeople into narrators and makes us as readers feel as if we are one of them is really good and something I personally couldn’t have thought of.
Kadeem, please address comments to others by name so we can all follow along. Thanks!
Josh I agree with you about the author Faulkner keeping the focus on Emily herself instead of adding unnecessary complexity. By Faulkner keeping the focus on Emily we were able to better understand the events that take place in her life and it was also much easier for us to process certain events and understand why she did certain things. If Emily were to narrator her own story I feel like certain things would have been left out. Having “the town” narrator the author was able to get into detail about Emily without having too many characters involved.
Hi Josh, I agree with you. This story uses the “we” as the first perspective to make readers immersive and feel as if they are a member of the town. Meanwhile, it makes the description of the story more biased towards Emily and makes readers focus on Emily. Moreover, in my opinion, because “we” observation and cognition of Emily is scattered and incomplete, this more reflects Emily’s mystery and loneliness, and thus brings more mystery to the whole story.
Josh, please be sure your comments meet the length requirement so you can receive full credit.
The story A Rose For Emily is a story following key points of the life of a stubborn and loner type of woman named Emily, after her death. She was someone who rejected the world’s progression and instead of progressing with it, she remained stagnant and stuck in time. An example of this from the text comes from line 14, where while city authorities attempted to collected her taxes in which she states, ““See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) “I have no taxes in Jefferson. Tobe!” The Negro appeared. “Show these gentlemen out.””. Colonel Sartoris, a generation ago, make it so she didn’t have to pay taxes. Her constant reference of Colonel Sartoris shows how out of place she is and stuck in a time before the current. The overall story is told in a atypical point of viewing, being in first person but never using words such as “I”, instead using plurals such as “we”. A Rose from Emily is told from the perspective of not just a single person from the town but the town itself. It may have been told in this point of view because no single person would be able to piece all these parts of her life together due to Emily being a sort of recluse and mysterious to most of the townpeople. The story revolves around everyone’s experiences involving Emily, one person couldn’t have experienced all this. A single person may not have been able to talk about her father and youth, as well as her lover, up until the her disappearance from society for the last couple years, the reason being that the story took place over more than one generation. In essence the story is told from the town’s perspective because its the town that knows most of her story, at least the parts within the story we are reading.
In the story “A Rose for Emily” I think revolves around Emily and the townspeople perspective. Emily appears to be ill after the death of her father. She never got married and didn’t pay taxes which wasn’t normal. There are so many factors in the story that don’t fit the norm of the story’s setting. As for why is to show the change occurring in the South. Things aren’t what they used to be and times change, society evolves. I also want to point out the way “we” is used, I feel like it brings us into the story and makes us sympathetic for what’s going on with Emily as do the townspeople so we can only know so much since we aren’t in the head of every character in the story. The story line also keeps going all over instead in a fixed timeline. It’s an interesting story I’ll have to read multiple times to catch more details I may have missed,
The story of “A Rose for Emily” is a story that was not very normal from the beginning. A lot of strange mysterious events happened around Miss Emily’s life that made it such an interesting story. In addition to this, Miss Emily herself wasn’t the best nor easiest character to deal with based on the town’s opinion. I believe that this story was in this point of view (town’s point of view) to really emphasize Miss Emily’s life as unordinary. As many pointed out, Emily was different from the rest of her town, thus if the story was told in her perspective reader’s would’ve not noticed her abnormalities. I also believe that the author then wrote the story in a nonlinear timeline because some moments connected with others. Meaning the author probably found it useful to give some background to explain the events that were occurring.
Ivanoba, please make sure your posts meet the length requirement. I want everyone to receive full credit for comments.
The reason “A Rose for Emily” was told in such an atypical point of view was to show how the town viewed Miss Emily, this wasn’t just about how anyone person viewed Miss Emily but about how multiple people viewed her. Miss Emily and her house were seen as out of place in the town because they were both symbols of what use to. Miss Emily is seen as a very stubborn woman and a woman who is stuck on traditions and the past. An example of her being stuck in the past would be in paragraph 50 when the town received free postal delivery and Miss Emily refused to let them attach the metal numbers and a mailbox to her home. The author wanted to be able to tell Emilys story through the views of the town people, by doing these we were able to learn about important events that happened in Emilys life.
Chayadevi, you make some good observations about how Miss Emily is stuck in the past. Can you connect this more clearly to the function of the nonlinear timeline?
After reading “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, I think that the main reason why the story was from an unusual point of view, is because the author chooses to write it base on the opinions that the people of Jefferson, Mississippi has about the life of Miss Emily Grierson. The whole story was center on gossip and speculations about Miss Emily feelings and the way how she decided to live her life. Even when most of those rumors were confirm after Miss Emily die, because her neighbors finally got inside Miss Emily’s house and found her darker secrets; I still found very intriguing that Miss Emily never told her own story. It will be great to know why, or how she became so obstinate, to the point to decide to live in her own world and shut out everybody else from her life. Well, I think that we won’t ever know if there was a real sympathy for the one they called “Poor Emily”.
Kenia,
You make such a good point. Everyone around tells this woman’s story, and even though there were a few confirmations, we still don’t know the entirety of her life. I think that the townspeople were so persistent in knowing more about her, the reason for the person she chose to be, and why she is clung to not wanting change that it made Emily more closed off. The town will tell this story for generations, but no matter what, no one will know who the true Emily really is.
Kenia, I also find it interesting how Emily never got to tell her own story. I feel like she’s been stripped of her humanity in a way, which is further proven by how they referred to her as a ‘fallen monument’ at the funeral. Emily had become one with her home. The very thing that imprisoned her for so many years and held her back was also where she felt the safest and never wanted to leave because at least then maybe she could ignore the outside world and feel less like she had run out of time and had a chance at finding love again. Though we just barely caught a glimpse of Emily in the story, I can confidently assume she was grasping at her youth, which is why she never kept up with the times as she stopped aging past a certain point and was just existing. She and her home had become a monument in the town and I do really wonder how the story would’ve been different from Emily’s perspective.
The potential reason that the story, “A Rose for Emily,” was in the first person because the writer wanted to showcase the town’s diverse perspectives and the true Emily. For example, I noticed that throughout the story, the narrator switches pronouns. In the first sentence of the story, the narrator says, “our whole town went to her funeral.” When first reading this, one can assume that this will be first-person throughout the story’s entirety, which it is, but later in the reading, the narrator uses the pronoun “they” as they describe the event that took place in the meeting. The way the narrator describes the meeting was as if they were there themselves to witness it. Then more into the reading, they switch back to using the pronoun “we” when explaining the events following her father’s death. Even though the story was written in the first person, the narrator wanted to differentiate their thoughts on Emily and the town’s thoughts and opinions. The narrator was figurately setting walls between their thoughts, the townspeople’s thoughts, and the true Emily we saw unveiled at the end of the story.
**I had trouble trying to analyze this story; I may be completely wrong about this so please if there is any input.. I would love to hear it.**
The story of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulker, is a short story that takes place in the Old South to revolves the curious history of Miss Emily, a mysterious figure. The story was started at the end of miss Emily but started recalling what happened, or in other words, foreshadowing. The way the story is told helps the author to mixed up the progress of the story and hide some obvious answers and it was able to build up the suspense and manipulate the thought process of the readers. The author wanted the readers to see the townspeople’s different views on Emily and how she chose to live her life seeing as no one person by themselves could tell Emily’s full story. After Emily’s dad died she had a happy and enjoyable time, because she wanted to get back what her dad took from her. This story is written in 1st person by the people in the town because they had a full understanding of miss Emily than anyone else.
The reasons for “A Rose for Emily” being told from such an atypical point of view is for anyone reading to see how the town thought of Emily. She’s described as traditional and old fashioned, the house is described as old and falling apart compared to the newer houses and buildings on the street. The townspeople have mixed feelings about Miss Emily, some hate and pity her, while some respect her. Their mostly just nosey, nones really seen the inside of her home in ten years besides the servants and the rarely speak. I do feel pity for Emily, her father refused to let her date or probably talk to men. He thought none of the men were good for her but in him being selfish, he basically denied her a family. And I also think that when her father passed and as time went by, she thought that herself but in doing so, she held herself back as well. And then she meets Homer but that doesnt last long and she feels she has to hold on to the only love she’s ever known besides her fathers.
Hi Khadijah, I really like your thoughts about the story, especially the part when you mentioned that the townspeople were mostly just nosey. I think that your comment was funny, but most important 100% real. Usually, people will judge others’ life without knowing the facts. When I was a kid, I was afraid of an old lady that everybody in the neighborhood called “The crazy Juanita”; because as soon as a new family get the town, somebody will tell them scare stories about the behavior of the old lady. Emily’s unfortunate experiences could be the reason why she decided to avoid the opinions of her townspeople and live alone with her dark secrets.
William Faulkner’s “A Rose For Emily” tells the story of Emily’s tragic life. In the story, because of the influence of her family and social environment, Emily has changed from a delicate and lovely girl into a character with a devil character. The author uses an atypical point of view to tell the story. The point of view of the story is “we”, which represents the residents of the town. Such a narrative shows that “we” observation and cognition of Emily is scattered and incomplete. In this way, on the one hand, the mystery and loneliness of the heroine in the story are more reflected, thus bringing more mystery to the whole story. On the other hand, it also means that Emily is out of place with the residents of the small town, with the estrangement and opposition that can not be eliminated, which reflects the background of the times.
The story is told from this unusual point of view because it reflects the culture and social demands of people of that time. Although Emily the protagonist of the story is from an aristocratic family, her behaviors were determined by the townspeople. They didn’t like Emily marrying Homer Barron because of his low social class, thus being influenced by the society and its people.One of the most important reasons for using the non-linear timeline in the story is to keep the readers bound to the story with its turns and twists. This would also leave the readers to keep guessing about the events that either occurred in the past or which would come in the future. Another reason is to mimic the way humans recall events without any chronological timeline.
Bianca, I’m unclear as to why the first-person plural point of view is a reflection of the culture of the time in which the story is written. Your observations about the nonlinear timeline are well taken.
A reason why the story might have had to been told from an atypical point of view could have been because Emily did not have any family around her who could tell her story of how she lived and what she did. In order for Miss Emily’s story to be told her neighbors and everyone else who lived around her and dealt with the things that she did were the only people who knew her well enough to tell her story.
Norma, please review length requirements in “Information about Discussion Boards” in COURSE INFORMATION. This is much too short!
This story “A Rose For Emily” written by William Faulkner was written interestingly. This story was about a woman who is very stubborn and tries to remain in the past. Her Father past and is trying to find someone so she won’t be alone. The way the author tells the story is through the eyes of the town. A lot of gossip talk and talking about her and her business. I believe that the author wrote the story like this to not only show what people think about her but also to show why she is the way she is. The town slowly starts losing respect for her as she still doesn’t manage to change with time. Emily’s father had something to do with it considering her father never let any man come in the house and kept Emily in the house. This was why William Faulkner wrote the story like this.
The story A Rose For Emily William Faulkner was told in a non linear timeline because the author wanted to build up to the ending with a bit of suspense and give a chance for the reader to see how the story will show us the type of character Emily was. In the story it showed that Emily did not gather with the people around the town and when the people wanted to check up on her she would not even open the door for them. I believe she distance herself from them because she knew that if they found out more about her behavior more eyes would of been on her and she would of never been able to hide what she did. The author also uses the plural (we) because the story was mainly told by an outside perspective, the town folk were the ones analyzing Emily behavior but instead of finding it odd or not normal they felt bad for her because she lost her father, high status and her marriage.
The story “A Rose For Emily” is about a woman who is extremely reluctant to the changing that has gone on around the world and is occurring in her town.The author tells the story in atypical point of view so that the reader can gain some insight of how the town feels about change and how they hold the woman in low regards.This means that the towns people try and persuade her that women deserve just as much rights as men if not more but the more stubborn and reluctant the woman is the less the towns people want to get involved.I really enjoyed this story as the way it was told helped me envision myself there in the town seeing all this transpire before my eyes because I became so I indulged in the story giving me a taste of how some people feel about the equal rights for men and women.The role of Emily Rose in the story is that of a housewife.Meaning that she did not want to have the opportunity to find work or feel obligated to find a job but she was fine just being a stay at home wife and just doing house chores.The short term of it was that she often kept to herself and whenever she was outside she wanted everything her way as she felt any other way was wrong.In the end I feel that because she was so broken down led to the fact that she had such a sad ending to life coming in the form of death.It was sad because she died alone in her house and I feel to die alone is so depressing because she did not have anyone to confide in when she was on her death bed but she was just alone.
In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, we can know that due to the influence of her father, Emily has become a person who refuses to change and likes to be immersed in the past. This behavior makes Emily isolated and unable to Incorporate into the changes in the town. The outside world is always changing, Emily refuses to communicate with the constantly changing outside world in order to maintain her aristocratic obligations, this is why Emily has been living in her house after her father’s death, Emily’s behavior made everyone in the town not know what she was doing, and no one really understood Emily’s behavior. In the story, the author uses an atypical point of view to tell the story, this is because it just describing Emily’s story does not make readers feel sympathy for her tragic experience. Therefore, the author chose to piece together Emily’s life through the changes of the times and the understanding of Emily by people living in the small town at different time periods. It also allows us to understand why Emily chose such an action, which can increase the story’s potential and the know about the development of the new era and the decline of the old era.
The reason why the story of “A ROSE FOR EMILY” was told from an Atypical point of view was because they wanted to show how everyone in the town looked at her and what they thought of her. She wasn’t close to anybody, she was raised lonely so, it would be hard for her to make any friends because she would be in fear of them leaving her. In the text, they say “That was two years after her father’s death and a short time after her sweetheart — the one we believed would marry her — had deserted her. ” this shows how the town was checking her every move and she wasn’t able to have a private life. The town find out everything about her without being close to her, which is how the story makes it more interested and more dramatic. They described how everything looks and how they told she was sick ever since her dad dies and then the person who she is crazy in love with is going to leave.
“A Rose For Emily” the story is told from an atypical point of view. I believe this is because she was so different from the rest of the town. Using words like we further increases that distance between her and the townspeople. She has stayed in her house due to her fathers strict rules. The town hasn’t seen her in so long and neither of them are willing to cooperate with each other. This is because Emily Father had a lot of power in his name. I also believe the story starts with this weird timeline to keep the reader waiting for Emily’s death. This is because Emily’s life is boring. She is alone once her father dies, and since she has not learned anything on how to actually live with others she is seen as someone to look at. This keeps us reading, awaiting to find out how she died and when the ending comes it’s a surprise.
The story “A Rose for Emily” is told from the perspective of the first person. The writer uses the term “we” in the text to insinuate that he or she was part of the cities but is anonymous and Faulkner’s proverb points out that the incidents are similar to an eye-witness. An image of an all-knowing character with enough experience to provide insight into the potential events of a story was generated by the external authority who had positive predictions of this picture of the private life of Miss Emily. In Miss Emily’s life, the emotionality of this community issue to any little happening indicates that the pronoun ‘we’ might speak for the town gossip culture that needs something done and is outraged when the event moves beyond their orders. Intrigued by the experience of personal detail and the casual opposite of all people, the enigmatic first-person narrator represents township. This has a deciding influence on Miss Emily’s views by implying that gossips need not judge her and that a better perception of a special and isolated character is required.
The story titled “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner is told from such an atypical point of view because there is no one single narrator, the story is told in bits and pieces through the eyes of the town based on what they heard and speculated about in regards to Emily. I believe this is because no one who knew of Emily ever got close enough to her to really know her never mind what was happening in her life behind those closed doors. This point of view makes Emily and her life all the more mysterious and adds to the build up of the story. The story is not told in chronological order which is purposeful because it keeps the reader wondering while also representing the warped sense of time and distorted reality that Emily is living in. As the town grows and changes around her, Emily stays frozen in time not alive just living as she had long lost that hope of living a normal life since that had been stripped away from her by her father. Time never waited for her, she was simply living in the shadow of who she could’ve been.
Hey Miranda, I was struggling to figure out who the “we” were in this story and your response gave me the answer I was seeking. I definitely agree that the reason for the atypical point of view was due to the fact that no one was truly considered “close enough” to understand and know Emily.
Gabriel, please make sure your comments meet the length requirement.
I think no one person was close to Emily as it is apparent in the story “A Rose For Emily,” so the narration view of “us”, coming from the different perspectives of the townspeople; was the only way to have described Miss Emily and her tragic life. This article: “Town and Time: Teaching Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”” by Mary Ellen Byrne, describes that the town was bound by a sense of obligation out of tradition and stating, “The men act from “respectful affection for a fallen monument;” the women, from “curiosity.”” Although no one was ever close to Emily due to her odd and reclusive personality. Interestingly the story begins at the funeral of Emily Grierson, then goes on to depict what Miss Emily’s life had been like before her death as observed by the many point of views of the townspeople which mostly depicts her odd behaviors, and what could’ve lead her to the tragic end she faced. The townspeople gave their perception of the events in Miss Emily’s life, and often times their view toward her was one of pity and feeling sorry for her.
The reading of “A Rose for Emily” was told from an atypical point of view so that the people who read this would see how the other people in the town saw this woman, her dark and cold appearance was part of her personality since it reflected her dissatisfaction with what surrounded her and at the same time hid everything that had to do with her and her way of living. As we read, we can see how the author involves the reader in a direct way, mentioning the plural “we” and in reading he also shows some empathy and consideration with Emily. In this way he wants to reach us readers causing us to feel everything related to Emily in a more direct and personal way, creating empathy between the reader and the protagonist, making us in some way love this character and making us see that Emily proves to be a cold and indifferent person before many situations in the town and in her life but at the same time he is a person full of nobility who only wanted to be accepted no matter what decisions he might make.
In “A Rose For Emily” by William Faulkner we are shown the slow decline of Emily throughout her remaining years after her abusive father had passed away. This psychological decline Emily displays is shown in a very particular way by Faulkner. Faulkner uses a nonlinear timeline to depict Emily’s life as seen through the eyes of the townsfolk. He does this to show the state of her psychological health by showing events in where Emily is clearly not rational. A great example of this was when the city authorities arrived at Emily’s residence to collect taxes but she insisted that Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes. This would seem normal to the reader until it is explained that Sartoris passed many years prior. Another great example would be the opening of the story itself, it begins with her funeral and goes on to depict different points in her life showing us the reader how she met her demise and the decay of her health.
What may seem like an oddly confusing story is simply the story of a woman who had been on lockdown by her dad all her life. Due to his behavior towards her, after his death, Emily begins to do anything she can to not feel alone.
The reason why this story was told from such an atypical point of view was due to no one specific person knowing enough to be able to tell her story alone. This was due to her not leaving her house too often. The reason for the nonlinear timeline of this story was because had the timeline not been set up the way it was, the ending of the story would have been revealed right away from the start, which in turn, was Emily’s death.
Ramon, please be sure your posts meet the length requirement so you can receive full credit. See “Information about Discussion Boards” in COURSE INFORMATION.
The narrator of the story, “A rose for Emily” can be considered as a culmination of both the girl emily’s perspective and that of the entire town. The narrator seems to be pitying her state but still criticising her. It makes a scene that is in the favour of the village while in reality, the town people didn’t care nor even help her when she was in need. Also, the viewpoint of this narration is unique as the collective behaviour of the entire town is depicted through a single individual entirely based on speculations. I think Thomas Faulkner has tried to present the story in a chronological order of events more like some sort of a monologue.
I believe that Faulkner wrote the story the way he did in a way for the readers to be more intrigued with what is going on. Plus this was definitely a good way to keep people focused on the character. Considering what was happening in her life and the events that took place the author clearly wasn’t shy to say exactly what was on his mind.
Yes! this is exactly what I was thinking… sad stories usually have us very interested and keeps us reading.
The story “A Rose for Emily” is a story about a woman who from what I read it’s from the point of view from her town… which is a little quite weird because they are all so into her life and it’s crazy. This girl was a type of girl that refused to accept things around her and did not accept anyone to help or into her life. The fact that everyone gossips about her is so weird as well like it’s just like current events from now in days, people gossip so much about someone else’s life like if they got paid for it, it’s just so crazy!!! Everyone in her town felt very bad for her as well because of where she lived too.