"A Rose for Emily" by William Faulkner ends with this sentence: "We saw a long lock of iron-gray hair." Its effects arise from two characteristics: the complex chronology of the story and the voice of the narrator. There are many curious things about the narrator's voice from the beginning to the end of the story. The narrator avoids identifying his gender in the first place: “Our whole city is gone, . . men through respectful affection. . .the women mostly driven by curiosity to see the inside of his house" (). The narrator avoids mentioning a particular generation, including both the older citizens of the city "Only a man of the colonel's generation and thought Sartoris could have invented it" () and his younger generations, "When the next generation. . . became mayors and councilors, this arrangement created a bit of dissatisfaction" (). If the narrator reported what he observed them doing then things would be easier. Of course, this happens every now and then, "When . . . word spread that the house was all she had left. . .the people were happy" (). Knowledge of what had happened could be professed by the narrator. The narrator uses the first person plural to say what the people of the town observed: "When we saw her again, her hair was cut short" (). Sometimes the narrator also provides the source: "Homer Barron was back in town. A neighbor saw the black man admit him at the kitchen door" (). The narrator's impression is confused due to the counselors' visit to Emily. The story switches to the third person plural, which means that the story is told by “their ” perspective. “They were admitted by the old black man into a dark hall from which a staircase ascended into even deeper shadow” (); later, “they could hear the ticking of the invisible clock at the end of the… middle of the paper ...section 3, "As soon as the old men said, 'Poor Emily,' the whispers began, 'Do you think it's really so?' among themselves...This behind their hands; rustle of silk and satin behind the shutters " (). The narrator has an ironic view of the citizens. But in section 4, the narrator moves between them: "Later we said, 'Poor Emily' behind the shutters" ( ). We may be surprised to find that, although it was originally "the next generation" of aldermen who mailed the tax notices, the narrator later reports, "Every December we sent her a tax notice" (). Point of view was ceded to this creeping "us", surrounding Emily's story with rumors. The reader may tremble reading this line: "The day after his death all the women prepared to come to the house to offer condolences and help. , as is our custom" ().