The Role Of Society In William Faulkners A Rose For Emily

In â€Å"A Rose for Emily†, William Faulkner adopts copious amounts of interesting techniques to help move the story along from symbolism to the structure of the story itself. Though, one technique that stands out the most is his use of an anonymous narrator whose relationship and role in not only Emily’s life, but the life of the town is quite ambiguous. The way the narrator chose to tell the eccentric Emily Grierson’s story is quite striking, using the word â€Å"we† multiple times throughout the piece taking on the feelings of the townspeople. It is clear that the narrator’s placement in the story is to function as the voice of white society in the south, demonstrate the ignorance of society, and symbolize the relationship between society and†¦show more content†¦One incriminating fact would be his or her knowledge of Emily’s purchase of arsenic which the druggist had said was to kill rats, though â€Å"no one thought she wanted to kill rats† (Dilworth 257). Also, he or she took notice of the smell of putrefaction from the Grierson property soon after Barron’s apparent departure and Emily’s purchase of arsenic, but still chose to disregard the stench as simply coming from a dead animal. The narrator also brings to light his or her complicity in Barron’s murder after mentioning that he or she along with the other townspeople had hoped â€Å"[Emily] would persuade him yet† (Faulkner 313) to marry her the day after she had purchased the poison. Dilworth notes the discrepancy between the information given to readers by the narrator before and what is being given presently, stating that â€Å"the narrator is caught retrospectively fabricating his [or her] own and his [or her] neighbors ignorance, which is the basis of their ‘innocence’ (257). The townspeople might have not initially known of Emily’s crime, but as the evidence piled up there was no way for th em not to have guessed what the Grierson girl had done, thus replacing what the narrator would presume to be innocence with a thick layer of ignorance. Through the narrator’s relationship with Emily, though at first glance many may see it as insignificant, readersShow MoreRelatedWilliam Faulkner s Writing Style1486 Words   |  6 PagesWilliam Faulkner, who lived his entire live in Mississippi, was a Nobel Prize- winning writer who became well-known for his work set in the American South. After dropping out of high school and working in multiple different fields, he was commissioned as a major in the Hawaiian Territorial Forces. Faulkner later enrolled in the University of Mississippi and began his writing career; writer Sherwood Anderson gave Faulkner advice, stating that he should write about his native home of Mississippi. 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