Course 7—Lecture

LitCourse 7
How to Read: Point of View
12

 

Point of view—experiment 2

"A Rose for Emily"—as told through a limited omniscient narrator: we would be privy to Emily's inner thoughts, her grief over her father's death; later, her feelings about homer and anger at his leaving. Emily would be humanized—lessening the richness and complexity of the story. Both the mystery and humor (the smell and men pouring lime around the house) would disappear.

Result: without the collective 1st person "we" of the community, we would be unable to detect the town's hypocrisy and pettiness—and its complicity in Emily's downfall.

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