A Rose for Emily

A Rose for Emily is a story by William Faulkner. Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on 25 September 1897. He was the first of four sons to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Faulkner, and was named after his great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner. He never completed high school, but was able to enroll in University for a special catering program, to serve the war veterans. He stands out to be the most unsurpassed American writers of the twentieth century. Faulkner has written novels, poems, screenplays and short stories. Faulkner wrote his first novel, Soldier’s Play, in 1925. In addition, his most celebrated novels are As I Lay Dying (1930), Light in August (1932), The Sound and the Fury (1929), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). William Faulkner died of a heart attack on July 6, 1962. Faulkner remains a revered writer of the American South of all times (Morton 10). A Rose for Emily is Faulkner’s most interpreted short story. Faulkner is said to be influenced by his family history, and the area in which he grew up. This story takes place in Faulkner's fictional city, Jefferson, in the fictional county of Yoknapatawpha. Faulkner uses a third person point of view so as to make the readers interpret the story, and draw their own conclusions as the story progresses.

The narrator in the story is omniscient, unbiased, and is all knowing. He tells a story of events that happened in his absence without taking any sides. The narrator was aware of everything that was taking place in the entire town (Getty 230). In addition, no one knew about Emily’s life, but it is through the narrator that we learn about her life with her father, and after her father’s death. The narrator describes Miss Emily’s house, as “it smelled of dust and disuse--a c...

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...or narrates throughout the story. The narrator was able to give the reader an outsider’s glimpse of Miss Emily Grierson’s life. The use of Faulkner’s third person narration helped the reader find out about Emily’s past life, including her father’s death, her love for Homer, how she needed affection and the death of Homer Baron. Ultimately, the author is able to execute his story very well through the third person narration.

Works Cited

Getty, Laura J. "Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" The Explicator 63.4 (2005): 230. Print.

Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emil and Other Stories. New York: Random House, 2012. Print.

Morton, Clay 'A Rose for Emily': Oral Plot, Typographic Story", Storytelling: A Critical Journal of Popular Narrative 5.1(2005):7-12. Print.

Sullivan, Ruth. “The Narrator in “A Rose for Emily.” The Journal of Narrative Technique 1(1971): 159-78.Print.