In the short story "A Rose for Emily", the narrator, who seems to be a townsperson that sees her life in only what he hears from gossip, jumbles the timeline of Emily's life story to the point where it is a little difficult to understand what is happening in which order. By the end, however, the reader is able to decipher what the order is and why the narrator chose to tell this story out of order. There are many interpretations I am sure, but I believe that he chose to tell the story in such a way in order to build this suspense. The most shocking, climax-like part of her life story is when they find out that she had been keeping Homer's body in her house and sleeping with it every night. This scene would have shocked the audience, but after this is revealed to the audience, there is no more point to the story. It is the fact that they bounce around the timeline that builds this suspense and curiosity for Emily's life. They give a small detail that there was a smell coming from her house, so the audience is left to wonder what it is, while the audience is also given the ability to see how the townspeople interact with her. The author purposely arranges the story in this way to build that suspense.
There is another reason why the author could have chosen to jumble the timeline and that is based on the type of narrator they chose. The narrator is a person who sees her life from the outside and the facts that are given to the audience is given through the gossip thrown around town. Gossip does not always come to a person in order, so the author was trying to depict that this story was told through gossip.
I know that when i was reading this, I could tell that the events given to me were not in order and that I needed to sort out my own timeline. This caused me to pay close attention to details of Emily's progression into seclusion and insanity. I could tell from how secluded she acted when this certain event had taken place. And i believe that is why the jumbling of time is done also. Because there is this need to pay attention to Emily's sanity level in order to create their own accurate timeline, the reader, with the attention on her isolation, can see the emphasis Faulkner is putting on the horrible nature of being isolated from a community.
I agree with you in that they jumps with time was caused in order to build a type of suspense for the reader. And it did work, it did create a suspenseful finish in the end. Do you think that the opinions of the town's people could create a probable cause to why Emily became who she did in the end?
ReplyDeleteI think the townspeople knew that Miss Emily wasn't your typicall lady. She was kept from any potential suitor, did not have any friends or family near. Still i dont think that they would have thought she would be the murderer of Homer Barron. They had respect for her for being one the oldest people in town.
ReplyDeleteI agree the first time reading the story it can be confusing. Once you read it a second time the story becomes clearer. I read this high school so this was the second time that I had read this. It makes a difference reading it twice. It is a creepy story but interesting. The timeline will become clearer the more you know about the story.
ReplyDeleteI am not so sure that the story was told from gossip. Some of it may have been, but much of the story was told from observations by the narrator. I doubt that it was gossip that the house smelled or that Miss Emily once taught china painting. The story seemed more like an explanation of events that happened without much speculation.
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