Narrator Viewpoints in “A Rose for Emily” and “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
Viewpoints and perspectives in a narration are important in literature. In the story “A Rose for Emily,” the author presents a woman who has undergone a major tragedy. The woman, from the beginning, attracts pity and sympathy. This compels the narrator to hand her a rose which in the story, means many things including homer, and secrecy. On the other hand, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” presents a shimmering city full of unmatched happiness. In this city, people celebrate simple events including summer solstices. The story takes a positive perspective because the narrator literally presents a fairy tale of a city which in today’s terms can only be described as being from the ancient days. While the narrators in both stories are in first person and positive, the narrator in “A Rose for Emily” and the one in “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” differ in their moods of narration and identification with the characters
The use of the first person point of view characterizes the two narrators. In “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator uses an atypical form of first person narration to present to the flow to the audience. There is one narrator throughout the story. The narrator discusses the events using the pronoun “we” so signify that they actually are part of the community. We see the narrator admit that, “We are the city authorities, Miss Emily (Faulkner 2).” The narration of “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” also takes a similar flow as the narrator presents the ideas from a “we” viewpoint. The narrator here is a first person observer because he is not involved in the events of the story. The line, “Often the young people go home in tears, or in a tearless rage, when they have seen the child and faced this terrible paradox” (Le Guin 10) clearly presents this. The narrator, thence, knows the happenings of the Omelas and presents them to the audience while explaining the reasons behind these happenings.
Hope and positivity are outstanding in the two stories. In “A Rose for Emily,” we easily note that whereas the town people appear to have a negated look at Emily for her many vices like adultery, the narrator brushes this off with a belief that she still deserves to be handled well. The narrator present that, “She carried her head high enough–even when we believed that she was fallen (Faulkner).” Clearly, the narrator is careful to not condemn but recognize the dignity with which Miss Emily faces problems in her life. This is overtly a positive perspective. The story of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” also takes a similar course. The narrator in the story presents that the city is characterized by happiness and delight. Notably, the authors states that the city comprised “no vapid, irresponsible happiness” (Le Guin 10). The people of the city have the experience of living with one malnourished child but because of the complex factors surrounding the child, they have ton either choose to accept the situation as it is without helping or leave the Omelas. The narrator brings this out positively by mainly highlighting the positivities of the city and brushing off the negativities.
The moods of narration differ significantly. “A Rose for Emily” is a tale that is explicitly successful but also complex. The narrator, because of the notable extravagant use of the pronoun “we”, may easily be understood to be addressing the entire town. The narrator whose identity is concealed is sympathetic of Emily. Clearly, Emily’s actions are not condemned but empathized and defended. Factually, the narrator admires Emily in some aspects. It follows, thus, that the mood of the story is not only sympathetic but also somber. This is mainly a result of the sad unfolding of events. Conversely, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” is a tale of untellable joy. The narrator throws the readers into a world of never-before-experienced imaginations of happiness and delight. The perspective of the narrator is notably ignorant because they seem to present a form of happiness that is irresponsible. The mood is irresponsibly joyous It comes out clear, hence, that whereas the former story presents a responsible and sympathetic narration, the latter is not only delightful, but also irresponsible.
In terms of identification with characters, on the contrary, great differences can be noted. These mainly relate to the way the narrators sympathize with and condemn the characters. The narrator in “A Rose for Emily” does not attempt to condemn the Miss Emily. He is observably sympathetic of her situation but still admires her aristocratic bearing. The narrator, for instance, presents Miss Emily as a woman from a high class family who chooses a low class person for a lover. The relationship turns out to be more troubling than her social class but the narrator identifies with this and admires how she distances herself from the gross and vulgar world while still committing an act of desperation – necrophilia. The narrator does not condemn her for these actions but identifies that the Griesons actually, “held themselves a little too high” (Faulkner 4). On the other hand, there is little sympathy in the narration of “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”. Instead, the story is a tale of a posh city where people live in unmeasured and unequalled happiness to the extent of missing to notice a suffering child. The narrator presents that in “the city of happiness, well, we all live there and people go about their business with full knowledge of the child in the closet” (Le Guin 14) However, it is unique that those that choose to walk away from the imperfect society of the Omelas chose to show sympathy to the suffering child. By opting to move out of the imperfect community, they affirm that in a time of suffering, it is better to create a better society than to just stay in the present conditions. Notably, whereas the former story employs a narrator that identifies with the characters through sympathy and admiration, the latter is narrated by a person that has less interest in the events of the story.
From the foregoing, narrator viewpoints can differ depending on the type of narration. However, in some aspects, they tend to be similar. In the stories discussed herein, it is notable that the narrators agree in their use of first person perspectives as well as positivity. In both stories, one cannot miss to note that the narrations are discussed by an observer that is part of the population of the towns involved. Also, both narrators take an optimistic and positive perspective when presenting their narration. They mainly focus on the positive aspects of the communities while seemingly overlooking the negatives. On the flip, however, differences in mood and identification with characters are overt. In “A Rose for Emily,” the narrator presents the story in a sad mood but still sympathizes with Miss Emily without condemning her actions. In “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,” the narrator takes a joyous mood to present society that is not at all sympathetic. In this society, those that want to show sympathy must literally walk away.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. A Rose for Emily. 1st ed., Random House Publishing Group, 2012.
Le Guin, Ursula K. The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas. 1st ed., HarperCollins Publishers, 1973.