"A Rose for Emily" from Tobe's perspective

            As “A Rose for Emily” is originally written, we perceive Emily and Tobe as outsiders and the abnormal people in the town. We know little about them, and only what others view them as. If William Faulkner's short story, were written through Tobe, in a first person singular point of view, the whole tone of the story would change.

One major change that would occur is the way Emily is viewed by the reader. Because Tobe is the only person that knows Emily personally, and sees her on a day-to-day basis, he would give us insight to the way she thinks and the type of person she really is. Right now we see her as a deranged person who murdered someone and never goes out, but maybe if we saw it through Tobe’s eyes we would see all the pain and heartache she went through to get her to that point. We may also feel more sympathetic towards her because we would know everything she went through that the townspeople never saw.

There would also be a discrete change in the setting of the story. Although he is only mentioned briefly throughout the story, Tobe is seen as “the Negro man,” and looked down upon because of his race and status as a servant. People underestimate him, because of this status, and never treated him properly. If we were to see the story through Tobe’s perspective we would get a clear idea about the racial conditions during this time and the way he felt towards the white townspeople. Instead of seeing the condescending way they felt about him, we would probably see the disgusted way he felt about them.

Finally, we would be able to see in the mind of Tobe. We would see his feelings for Emily, which were hidden before. Right now we are clueless as to their relationship, not knowing whether it was a romantic relationship or a hateful one. Knowing this would clarify why he stood by Emily for so many years and possibly why she decided to kill Homer. We could also see how Tobe felt about Homer and how he felt about what Emily did to him. From Tobe’s perspective, we could see how Emily progressed to be the way she was and how his life got pulled into catering to her needs.

This story has so many unanswered questions and seeing it through different points of view would help to answer many of those questions.