A Rose For Emily Dialectical Journal

Journal 1
In William Faulkner’s short story “A Rose for Emily”, readers are introduced to Emily Grierson whose character was highly respected in her society but for some mysterious reason fell off the grid. The other people in her community became curious as to what was going on in her life and any effort to find out the truth had proved to be futile. This journal seeks to show the narrator’s view of the Miss Emily’s story, as the narrator would refer to her due to the first person plural point of view the story was written in. Consequently, the sense in telling the story should be noted, as denoted by the title and why he would constantly use “we instead of “I”. Furthermore, the journal shall assess the effects on the overall story and the character of the narrator.

The narrator tells the story as a means of informing the reader about the greatness of Miss Emily to the community.

In the beginning of the story, the narrator referred to her as a “fallen monument” and states that the deceased Emily Grierson was to be buried together with the “Union and Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson”(Faulkner 99). This gives the story a united description of Emily’s character and shows how well she was respected in her community even after her demise. In addition, the narrator continues by showing the mystery the deceased woman had created when she disappeared from the light of society. “From that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years…” (Faulkner 103).When a rose that is in the center of attention disappears, everyone who’s seen it becomes curious about its disappearance. This was the exact same case with Ms. Emily. The people of the town were saddened as none of them knew the correct information on the deceased

woman.
The narrator narrates the entire story using a first person plural point of view by using words such as “we” instead “I” as a mean to portray the thoughts of the rest of the community. . “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.”(Faulkner 100). This quote signifies that the community had been speculating that something was going on between the deceased woman and a man she was dating after the death of her father (Anderson). It also gives a frightening and scary tone by the narrator. The use of the word “we” instead of “I”, helps to show that the narrator is hiding his own character and any association with the deceased woman. This leads readers to believe that the narrator knew more information than he was providing and possibly could have been the gossiper in the society. Ms. Emily is unknown to the people of her town and rumors are the only way that they can come up with a descriptive figure of what she really was. She used to be a teacher before, but now she had turned to a smelly woman whose house was a gross stench to the rest of her neighbors. “"Dammit, sir," Judge Stevens said, "will you accuse a lady to her face of smelling bad?"”(Faulkner 101). In a nutshell, it is clear that the narrator has information on the deceased woman that he would not like to share, which he hides well by the use of the first person plural.