Don't Trust the Narrator

Introduction

 For my introduction and thesis, I plan to focus on perspective in A Rose for Emily. My tentative thesis is: "Although some might claim that Faulker's confusing use of the third person to describe Emily's life, it lends itself to the overall tone and pace of the story".

As I thought about what to write for the thesis of my paper, I realized the oddness in Faulker's voice in the story. I wanted to write about something that isn't usually discussed and perspective (at least for this short story) isn't talked about as much as other themes. I wanted to discuss how odd and mistrustful we become of the story because of the odd narrator. 

However, I am unsure about what other factors to discuss in order to write a full essay on this topic. I will have to continue brainstorming other factors that contribute to the uneasy feeling the reader gets while reading the story. 

Importance of a Good Narrator

I want to start my paper by arguing the importance of a good narrator. Some might dismiss a narrator as just part of the novel, but the narrator actually shapes everything we believe and understand. 

A first-person novel is based solely on one perspective. We have the comfort of knowing who is speaking and why the narrator is connected to the events. A third-person novel is a little different...

A third-person novel lends a small amount of mistrust to the reader. And that is what I want to emphasize in the paper. 

What the Narrator Contributes

In A Rose For Emily, the narrator is unclear. He/She speaks in third-person about Emily yet occasionally says that "we" saw this, or "we" saw that. This makes me think that the narrator is part of the town and watched Emily grow up. 

If we aren't sure exactly who the narrator is, then there is no way to give them absolute trust as we read the story. This is extremely important for Faulkner's story. He wanted us to feel that way. 

He wanted us to feel slightly on-edge and wary. This contributes to the overall tone of the story.

As we start to mistrust the narrator, we also start to mistrust the information given. Which in turn, becomes an important thing to do or else the reader will not understand the ending of the story--since the narrator never explicitly says what happened.  

 Tone

The tone is next most important thing I want to emphasize. The narrator adds a tone of mystery and unease. As we read, we aren't sure why the narrator is even telling the story (other than it's an odd story). At first, it simply sounds like a recollection of this poor woman's life before she died. But as we start to mistrust the narrator, we start to look for other bits of information and why it is all important. We start to look for clues about what the narrator is doing. This ultimately leads us to understand how Emily's lover died.   

This last picture here shows how the tone allows us to trust the narrator again. Once we see the process and understand the role of the narrator in this particular story, we begin to trust him and the story falls together.