Stylistic Analysis of a Rose for Emily

807 Words4 Pages
A MESH OF PAST AND PRESENT: THE STREAM OF CORRELATION OF THE SOCIETY’S ROSE The muddled mixture of past and present taking place in a fictional town called Jefferson that highlights a kind of multilayered tale that is characterized by the flow of thoughts and images by an unnamed narrator is the focal point of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily. “Stream of Consciousness is a narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to render the flow of myriad impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal—that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts.” -Encyclopædia Britannica Article One major characteristic of Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily is the extensive description of the unnamed narrator of the life of Emily Grierson. It takes advantage on the use of flashbacks to merge the past and present while constructing a narrative order so as to arrive at a great effect of suspense. These flashbacks are like the stream of memories of the narrator interlaced with present descriptions to ultimately see more about the society’s rose. Another important component in the story is how that unnamed narrator takes on a first person plural narration. The ongoing back and forth of past and present situations added by the use of “WE” and “OUR” by the narrator primarily make the readers wonder the role of this unnamed being in the life of Emily Grierson. The train of thoughts of the narrator implies a fuzzy relationship to Emily Grierson. This narrator may have been one of the townspeople of Jefferson or a close family friend by the Grierson who knows the depravity of Emily during her youthful days. This idea sprung from the very fact that the narrator occasionally includes “himself” in the community—with words such as “WE” who gives opinions on how a woman like Emily Grierson is
Open Document