William Faulkner implements an objective point of view for this sad story of a lonely woman. The information given by the narrator throughout the story is straightforward and with very limited interpretation of the characters' feelings. After reading the story a few times I believe Faulkner is basing the narrator on a member of the town; a neighbor of Emily Grierson. This can be inferred from these passages: "When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral..." (33) and "At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said..." (37). I believe it's some non-participant, observant neighbor that is just in the know about the affairs in this small town.
I believe Faulkner chose to base the point of view on some neighbor in the background to try and invoke a sense of sympathy from the reader just as a person from Emily's neighborhood would. "When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray" (39). Even though Miss Emily chose to isolate herself from the town, the people were still somewhat preoccupied about what would be happening to her.It seems to me that Faulkner had limited choice when selecting the point of view since in this story Miss Emily was a very lonely woman for the latter part of her life. Who else but an observant, non-participant neighbor?
Since we get into the townspeople's heads, it can't be objective point of view. Review that terminology.
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