As my journey at Marylhurst University continues, and computer technology continues to have an increasingly important role in communication, this blog will reboot with my postings of weekly assignments from my Literature class. The reboot begins with an analysis of the use of "point of view" in a story...
"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner
The narrator of this story is a minor, unnamed character, a member of the town, who gives us an account of the life of Miss Emily in the town, as well as observations about her life and her death. The story opens with the event of Miss Emily's funeral, and is written in the first person plural. "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral..."
The story continues with a retrospect of the life of Miss Emily and various events involving members of the town in both the recent and more distant past. The narrator describes Miss Emily's reaction to the death of her father, when she was still a young woman, "We did not say she was crazy then...we knew that with nothing left, she would cling to that which had robbed her, as people will." These words foreshadow the future.
The narrator is a member of the town and is of some importance and authority which makes him a reliable narrator. Although we do not know his exact role, he seems to be an official. He is a member of the official group who, after the funeral, knocks down the door to a sealed upstairs room in Miss Emily's house. This narrator's point of view allows the reader to be intrigued by the mysterious life of Miss Emily and then be surprised by the final discovery in that upstairs room.
You offer an interesting interpretation of the narrative voice here, Nadine. I'm curious to hear more about how you see the voice as individuated rather than purely collective. By that I mean, how do we know its one person from the town instead of all of them?
ReplyDeleteIt's also worth exploring how the narrative point of view interacts with the plot structure. The actual narration of the story begins after the gruesome discovery and yet Emily's secret is not revealed until the shocking ending. How does the narrator accomplish this particular way of telling the tale without alienating the reader by seeming to conceal important facts?
Finally, I'm not sure I agree with you that this narrator is completely reliable. Couldn't there be things we're still not being told?
The voice of the narrator in the story remains consistent, and this is my clue that the story is being told by one person.
ReplyDeleteThe story begins at the funeral of Miss Emily and with a series of flashbacks we learn about her life as our narrator reports the observations and opinions of some of the townspeople. He reports that the ladies of the town are whispering behind their gloves; "Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town..."(38). The narrator offers a collective opinion after Miss Emily buys the poison, "So the next day we all said, 'She will kill herself'; and we said it would be the best thing" (38).
It might be said that saying something awful like "it would be the best thing" about a suicide is a clue to an unreliable narrator, but I think that would depend on whether or not the reader grew up in a small town. There are lots of things we are not being told because the narrator is neither all-knowing, nor is he particularly sympathetic to Miss Emily. Yet, not really knowing all of the true story of Miss Emily adds to the intrigue of the tale.
Works cited
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily"
Kennedy, X.J., Dana Gioia. Backpack Literature. 4th ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012. Print.