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LitCourse 6
How to Read: Plot
7

 

Plot —chronology

Realistic fiction tends to use a straightforward timeline, or chronology, moving from past to present.

Faulkner's story, however, uses a nonconventional timeline, starting—and ending—with Emily's death.

The next slide shows (1) events as they occur in time and (2) the same events as told to us in the story. The story starts in 1928 with Miss Emily's death...goes back to 1884...then forward to 1916... and so on. (All dates, except for Col. Sartoris's visit in 1894, are approximate.)