Discussion Topic
Impact of Non-Linear Structure in "A Rose for Emily"
Summary:
In William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the non-linear narrative structure enhances the story's mystery and suspense by preventing readers from easily piecing together events. The story starts with Emily's funeral and reveals her life in disjointed flashbacks, which mirrors the gossip-driven perspective of the townspeople. This fragmented timeline creates a sense of surprise at the story's conclusion, where Emily's secret is revealed. A linear narrative would likely reduce the impact of the shocking ending and diminish the depth of Emily's character portrayal.
How does the contrast between the order of events in "A Rose for Emily" and their narration impact the story's meaning and reader understanding?
The narrator of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" tells the story in a non-chronological order. The story is divided into numbered sections, but within those sections we have flashbacks. We already know the title character is dead when the story begins.
Section I of the story tells about Emily's death and what she represents in the town: "a fallen monument." Later in this section, we hear some examples of why Emily and her family name are considered important in the town, even though they have lost their wealth and Emily's home is dilapidated in the present day. These past examples take place 30 years before the main event mentioned at the start of Section II: "the smell." Neighbors complain about the smell coming from Emily's house but nothing is officially done. Section III discusses Emily's appearance when she was sick. Her meeting with Homer Barron , two...
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years after her father's death, is detailed. At the end of this section, Emily goes to buy poison from a druggist. Section IV opens with the narrator's speculations about what Emily would do with the poison. They discuss rumors about Homer's disappearance and his relationship with Emily. Her appearance is described as it changes over the next several years. Section V returns to the present, when some of the townspeople are allowed into Emily's home. This is when they find the long-dead body of Homer in Emily's bed. In terms of the actual timeline, not reflected in the narrative order we are given, at the beginning of the story Emily's family is powerful and revered in town and even given special privileges. Then, Emily's father dies, the town progresses, and Emily loses her wealth and influence. Emily meets Homer, buys poison, Homer mysteriously disappears. A smell is noticed coming from Emily's house, and when Emily dies years later Homer's body is found.
The reasons for this nontraditional narrative style are up for debate, but here are a couple of strong possibilities: the narrative timeline creates suspense and contributes to the shocking ending, and the timeline matches the gossipy secondhand nature of the story's details. First, let's consider suspense and the shocking ending. If you go back and reread the story, you will see that the author has set out the path to the story's conclusion (like the rat poison, Homer's disappearance, and the suspicious smell). However, because we know from the start that Emily is dead, we aren't trying to learn about her death; that isn't the point. The character study of Emily does not need to take place while she is alive. However, because we are not expecting to hear about the death of another minor character, the revelation at the end is a surprise. The long gray hair found on the pillow next to Homer's decayed body indicates that Emily has slept with him, and recently. This tells us more about her character that we did not know earlier since there was no access into her house or personal life. That leads us into the second possibility: the timeline reflects the gossipy narrative style. The narrator relates rumors and secondhand information on Emily. As though he/she is telling the story to a friend, he/she remembers connected details and includes these even when they are out of order in terms of the actual series of plot events.
How does "A Rose for Emily"'s non-chronological order affect reader perception?
The short story "A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner begins at the funeral of Miss Emily Grierson, briefly describes her house, which had become an anachronistic eyesore in the midst of cotton mills and garages, and then goes back to tell of her past. The first anecdote concerns the efforts of some men in the town to get Emily to pay her taxes. She is adamant that after the death of her father a town mayor had declared her exempt from taxes in perpetuity and she will not budge from her position.
After the tax story, readers then learn that two years after her father's death and shortly after her sweetheart had supposedly left her, a terrible smell arises around her property. Some men clandestinely sprinkle lye in her cellar and around the grounds. In general, this causes townspeople to feel sorry for her. They recall when she was a young woman riding around town with her father, and how her father never thought any suitor was good enough for her.
Readers then hear the story about Emily's sweetheart Homer Barron. He would take Emily out for buggy rides. After a time, though, she buys some rat poison. Townspeople think that maybe she is depressed and might use it on herself. They don't learn until after the funeral that she has used it to murder Homer and that his decayed corpse still lies in one of the bedrooms of the house.
There are several ways in which the perceptions of readers are affected by the non-chronological telling of the story. First of all, beginning and ending the story around the time of the funeral creates a frame in which the rest of the story fits. In the end, readers realize that the story actually only takes place in a short period of time during and after the funeral, and the numerous flashbacks prepare readers for the shocking discovery in the final scene.
The non-chronological order of the story also helps readers understand the depth of Emily's character. As aspects of her past history are uncovered, we as readers sympathize with this headstrong but intensely lonely woman. When Faulkner reveals that she was a murderer, we may not condone what she has done, but we at least understand her motivations for doing it.
Finally, the story is told by an unnamed narrator who is a town resident, and he tells it from the perspective of the townspeople. The non-chronological narrative gives a natural informality to the narrative, as if it were being told over a cup of coffee or a drink at a bar.
How does the sequence of events in both parts of "A Rose for Emily" affect your understanding of the story?
Part I of “A Rose for Emily” begins with Emily Grierson’s funeral, then sharply reverts, in the third paragraph, to 1894, when Colonel Sartoris remitted her taxes. In paragraph four, the narrative moves forward again, to a time a generation after the colonel’s time. The new administration wants to alter the arrangement he made with Emily. The rest of this section concerns the deputation from the Board of Aldermen and its complete lack of success against Miss Emily’s obduracy.
Part II begins at the same time as Part I ends, then abruptly returns to a time, thirty years earlier, when Miss Emily had been left alone in the world by the death of her father and the departure of her sweetheart. By the end of the section, the story doubles back again to the death of her father.
All this darting about and disruption of chronology heightens the sense of Miss Emily as an unchanging and unchangeable presence, remaining still and solitary in a society that is constantly in flux around her. It also gives the story the quality of a memory, juxtaposing similar events which happened at quite different times and building up an understanding of Miss Emily’s peculiar character by connecting various eccentric and gothic episodes throughout her life. This anecdotal quality is enhanced by the lack of any attempt to impose linear time on the narrative, and leads the reader to understand how deeply the story is rooted in Miss Emily's character.
Why does Faulkner present "A Rose for Emily" in non-linear order? Would a linear form be more effective?
William Faulkner organizes the story in non-linear fashion because he is presenting the narrator's memories. The reader can infer that time has passed since the last incident—the townspeople's search of Miss Emily's home—that they mention, but there is no way to determine how long ago that occurred. In fact, because the entire tale is dependent on one person's perspective, the reader cannot assume that the narrator is reliable. The story has many qualities in common with folk tales or talk tales. We learn little more about the narrator beyond their sense of identification with the town's white population and their strong interest—one might even say obsession—with Miss Emily and her family.
The author had free rein in deciding on the voice to use and within his opting for first-person (who would be the narrator). The dominant feature of nosiness requires a narrator who seems to have access to a wide variety of local sources, such as a stereotypical "busybody." The narrator uses "we" to identify the people who toured the house, uninvited, after Emily died, but does not actually claim to have been an eyewitness to the sights mentioned.
A different story would have resulted if Faulkner had identified the narrator. Chronological sequence would not work well because of the long time span, unless he had opted for a third-person omniscient narrator.
How does the non-chronological order in "A Rose for Emily" affect the reader's perception?
If the story were told in chronological order, there is a good chance that we, the readers, would figure out what is really happening in the text; we would be able to add up the clues and ascertain that Miss Emily purchases the arsenic in order to kill Homer Barron. Telling the story out of chronological order prevents us from putting together the pieces of the puzzle and renders us as uncertain of events as the other people in the town are. We hear the pieces of Miss Emily's story in much the same way that they would—some new and some from years ago. For example, separating the story about the horrible smell emanating from Miss Emily's house (a smell that was so bad that several people complained and men had to sneak onto her property at night to sprinkle lime all over it) from the fact that Homer Barron seems to disappear not only from Miss Emily's life but also from the life of the town completely, Faulkner knows the reader will probably be unable to connect the two right away. In the end, the townspeople who come to Miss Emily's wedding could not have anticipated finding the decayed corpse of Homer Barron in her bed; Faulkner allows us to be shocked as well by telling the story in this way.
What is the narrative structure in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" and why is it presented in non-linear order? Would a linear form improve it?
The story is told by a third-person narrator and employs Southern Gothic techniques to create a bizarre character and eerie plot. Faulkner also does not tell the story in a chronological order but instead moves back and forth in time. This serves the author’s desire to shock readers with the sudden reveal at the end. Without the non-linear device, the end of the story would probably not be as stunning as it is.
By opening with Miss Emily’s funeral and working backward, Faulkner paints a portrait of Miss Emily early on and provides important details about her relationships. For instance, we learn that the “whole town went to her funeral” but not because the townspeople grieved her passing. Instead, the men went out of respect for her or, more accurately, out of respect for her forefathers in the southern community. Faulkner even says that Miss Emily had been “a sort of hereditary obligation upon the town.”
The women, meanwhile, attended Miss Emily’s funeral out of curiosity. By opening with her funeral and then telling her story, we immediately see Miss Emily as someone apart from the rest of the townspeople and isolated by choice. By moving back and forth in time, Faulkner conveys important elements about Miss Emily’s personality and character. We learn that she was proud, haughty, financially strapped (Faulkner says she is “a pauper” after her father’s death), and desirous of male companionship. By playing with time in the story, the author also plays with the reader's orientation, making us ready to be shocked by the end.
The author tells us that Miss Emily refused to have her father buried for three days. In this way, he foreshadows the ending. He sets the reader up for the reveal, although he does not dwell on the specific point about her father’s burial. In fact, it is mentioned almost in passing—in just three short sentences—and Faulkner quickly moves on. He thereby paves the way for the big twist at the end of the story. Without using this device, the ending would not be as surprising.
The author drops hints of what is to come throughout the story, but we have no solid sense of the chronological order of scenes. Nevertheless, we can deduce some loose sense of time even though the author jumps around. For instance, the local authorities approach Miss Emily about her taxes. Some thirty years before this, their fathers approached her about the smell. The smell “was two years after her father's death and a short time after her sweetheart ... deserted her.”
How does the non-chronological order in "A Rose for Emily" affect readers' perception?
The fact that the story is told out of chronological order prevents the reader from putting together the clues that would help us to figure out that Emily killed her one-time lover, Homer Barron, with poison and has been keeping his rotting body somewhere in her house. This puts us in a position similar to that of the townspeople who have grown up with Emily and think of her as a "tradition" and a "duty"; they are, we must assume, completely shocked to find Barron's decayed body in Emily's bed, because the narrator tells us earlier on that they figured he had simply abandoned her. Barron was, quite proudly, not the marrying type, and so the townsfolk concluded when they didn't see him anymore that he had simply gone up North, back to his home. If the story were told in chronological order, we would be much more likely to string together the facts that Emily would not relinquish her own father's body until several days after he died (insisting he was still alive), she bought some poison from the druggist but became somewhat secretive when asked to state for what purpose she was purchasing it, her boyfriend completely disappeared shortly afterward, her house then began to stink horribly and men had to go and sprinkle lime around her property to get it to go away, and, finally, she closed up her house for good and let no one in except for her servant. Listed chronologically, readers are much more likely to piece together what she has done. Listed out of order, we are as surprised as those in her community, and Miss Emily seems as mythic and strange as she has always seemed to them.