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A Rose for Emily


So, we are fed our opinion of Emily rather than left to create it. Faulkner uses this isolation of the main character to filter the facts and influence us, the readers, into thinking and feeling exactly what he intends. .
             By making the narrator a generic member of the town we don't tend to judge or form an opinion of him/her either. So all the facts we are given from the narrator come as a reliable source, unbiased, and unquestionable. We come to think of the narrator as the voice of the town as a whole, and we are made to take his word as our own. Because Faulkner uses the narrator to tell us how the town felt of Emily we tend to form those same opinions of Emily. In doing so, we become attached to the town because we can relate to what they feel for poor, unfortunate Emily. So we are ultimately transformed into citizens of Jefferson through the narrator and through our common feelings of and for Miss Grierson.
             Instead of focusing on actual changes within the main character, Faulkner chooses to concentrate on a change in the town's as well as the reader's opinions of Emily. Each change of our opinion of Emily's character comes through the revelation of some new fact or bit of gossip that is spread throughout town. Faulkner chooses to introduce us to Emily through her death. So, the first thing we learn of the main character is that she has met her demise. She is dead and gone. The image of death, especially the death of the main character, the person with whom we are most concerned, evokes pity in most readers right from the beginning. This is Faulkner's first cue for the reader to follow. Death is perhaps the most tragic event any character can experience. Yet, Faulkner begins the story with this gloomy detail to set the tone. From there the narrator establishes Emily's status as a staple within Jefferson. He tells of how people came to her funeral out of a certain "respectful affection for a fallen monument" and out of curiosity.


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