First Person and Second Person Point of View

First and Second Person Point of View

As stated in the class reading on point of view, many readers prefer first person point of view because it gives the feeling that the narrator is talking directly to the reader. When this point of view is used it feels more like you are engaged in a conversation with the narrator instead of you reading a short story. Another important thing to remember about first person point of view is that the narrator is only telling the reader what they want them to know or how they perceive things. "A Rose for Emily" is a great example of the effectiveness of first person plural point of view in a story. One reason for its effectiveness is because the narrator can only tell you the story from their point of view; this allows the reader to use their imagination on what might be the truth. An example of this is when the narrator talks about Miss Emily purchasing arsenic from the druggist. The narrator then speaks of the last time Homer Barron was seen; "a neighbor saw the negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening. And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron." The narrator can only lead you to believe that Miss. Emily poisoned Homer but he could not tell you for sure. This allows the reader to draw its own conclusion of what happened.

In "A Rose for Emily" the narrator or narrators speak in the first person plural point of view giving the feeling as though they are speaking on behalf of the town. For example, "when Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral." Another example would be when the narrator was speaking about the neighborhood in which Ms. Grierson lived, "…set on what had once been our most select street." The narrator spoke continuously in the first person plural point of view throughout the story, representing the ideas of the town as a whole. I believe the narrator represented the town as a town of old southern tradition while struggling with the transition of a more modern way of thinking. The town was quite judgmental of Emily. An example would be "However, women eventually began to think her relationship with Barron was setting a bad example, and they had a Baptist minister call on her although she was an Episcopalian." I believe the choice of first person plural draws you into the theme of the story. For example, the first line of the story, "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral:" immediately you are drawn in to the story and want to read more. If "A Rose for Emily" was written in third person it would read more like a narrative instead someone's personal account of the story; it would not have the same effectiveness and first person plural point of view. I also believe it would not be possible to write this story in second person because second person is used more for e-mail, business and technical type writings. "A Rose for Emily" covers the lifespan of Miss Emily; "So she vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had vanquished their fathers thirty years before about the smell." This is another great example of the use of first person plural used by the narrator to recollect the events that took place over the lifespan of Miss Emily, as they remembered them. If you are not paying close attention you can easily get lost in the story and lose track of the sequence of events, which are crucial to this story.

There are many themes in this piece, but I believe one would be the change of dominance from the old south to the more modern way of thinking. Throughout the piece the narrator speaks of the struggles of trying to get Emily to get on board with the more modern ideas. For instance, "When the next generation, with its more modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen, this arrangement created some little dissatisfaction;" this is a great example of the struggle between the old south and the new.

The use of first person plural point of view demonstrated in "A Rose for Emily" how the townspeople judged Miss Emily without really knowing her and it is was not until after she died they learned the truth.

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