Literary Analysis

1. A Rose for Emily •from As I Lay Dying • Literary Analysis • The narrator’s point of view is the perspective from which a story is told. Point of view shapes the reader’s understanding of a fictional work: • In first-person point of view, the narrator is a character in the story, and uses the first-person pronouns I, our, and we. • In third-person point of view, the narrator is an onlooker to the story’s action. The narrator may be third-person limited, with access to only one character’s thoughts and feelings, or third-person omniscient, with access to all the characters’ thoughts and feelings.

2. Literary Analysis cont. Faulkner is known for his inventive uses of point of view. For example, in “A Rose for Emily,” the first-person narrator does not speak as a single individual but as a community. Even though it uses a first-person point of view, the narrative voice verges on the omniscient. In As I Lay Dying, the point of view shifts as characters take turns telling the story. analyze the impact of narration when the narrator’s point of view shifts from first-person to omniscient or from one character to another.

3. A Rose for Emily •from As I Lay Dying Literary Analysis 1. (a) Identify one passage from “A Rose for Emily” that is related by a narrator in the first-person point of view.(b) Identify one passage from the story that seems to have been related by a narrator with an omniscient third-person point of view.(c) Explain how the inclusion of omniscient elements with first-person narration affects your understanding of Emily or the townspeople in the passages you cited. 2. What makes the unusual narrative perspective in “A Rose for Emily” appropriate for this story? Explain the information you gain from both narrative points of view that you might not otherwise learn. 3. From what point of view does each narrator speak in the excerpt from As I Lay Dying? Explain.

4. Literary Analysis cont. 4. (a) Name three details or events that recur in each of the four sections excerpted from As I Lay Dying. (b) How does each narrator’s perspective on these details or events differ? 5. Consider the varying perspectives of Vardaman, Darl, and Anse. Then, use a chart like the one shown to analyze the impact of narration when the narrator’s point of view shifts from one character to another. Shift of narration from… Impact on the Story Vardaman to Darl Darl to Anse Anse to Darl 6. How would the story have been different if it had been narrated only (a) by Darl? (b) by Anse? (c) Analyze the overall effect of Faulkner’s choice to use multiple narrators and shift from one character to another.