Diction In A Rose For Emily

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Pages: 3

Literary terms have been around for centuries influencing the style of writing of multiple stories. Most authors include a combination of literary terms in their stories to grasp the readers attention, causing them to dig further into the mystery of the story and come up with their own idea of a conclusion. In William Faulkers short story A Rose for Emily, constant use of diction, organization, and point of view allows the author to hide a deeper meaning to the story itself in which the reader must discover. Diction is the authors ability to use certain words in order to give the reader a visual perspective of how certain things are perceived. However, the author does not only have to use words of diction towards the characters. Some may describe other objects that are relatively connected to the character so that the reader may interpret the behavior and description of the character for themselves. For example, in the beginning of the story, the town refers to Emily Grierson's, an old, peculiar lady, house as, "stubborn and coquettish decay above the cottage …show more content…
In a way, it is first person or first "people" limited when using the town (we) as a whole to become the narrator. While never actually revealing who the narrator is, Faulkner is able to hold the story as a mystery for the reader to solve. However, the narrator of the story has multiple opinions of Miss Emily. For example, in the opening scene at Emily's funeral, the narrator describes Emily as, "a fallen monument" supposedly to get across that she is an admired and historical person in the town. However, later on in the story, the narrator explains after Emily bought the arsenic, "'She will kill herself'; and we said it would be the best thing". The town has switched the opinion of Miss Emily as a respected idol to someone no one wants around anymore, implying that there is something the townspeople are skeptical