A Rose for Emily ~ Faulkner

 The structure, which is broken into five distinct sections, plays a key role in the short story "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner. First, the townspeople form the narration. For example, in the second segment, the townspeople said, "We did not say she was crazy then (Faulkner, 285)." This statement implies that now they know that she is crazy. Then, in the final section, the townspeople reveal why. They find a dead body, which is suspected to be Homer Barron, in her dusty bed. To further Emily's mental instability, they find a piece of her hair beside him. Lonely, Emily drugged and killed him with arsenic and slept with Mr. Barron. Secondly, each section alludes to a bigger climax, which acts as the paradigm of Emily's insanity. When they finally find the body, the other pieces of details from the first four accounts fall into order. They imply that the arsenic that she bought was to drug Barron. Also, the denial of her father's death suggests that she is mentally unstable. Even smaller details, such as the hair, finds a place in the story: "Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still that vigorous iron-gray like the hair of an active man (288)." The story concludes with a piece of hair on the bed next to Barron. Finally, the sections are not chronological. It demonstrates that the townspeople's gossip is the story instead of a definitive narrator. It leaves a level of uncertainty because they will never know if Emily killed the young man.