Unnamed Narrator

This man narrates the unusual appearance in his anonymous little town, which we have identified as Jefferson even though its name is deliberately obscured, of three barnstormers and the town's reaction to them and their stunts. He identifies himself as one of the town's older citizens, a "groundling," or non-flyer (197). Interestingly enough, the narrator qualifies his identification of Ginsfarb and Jake as Jews: "That is, [the spectators] knew at once that two of the strangers were of a different race from themselves, without being able to say what the difference was" (188). The narrator, who might or might not share the stereotypical views of his day, offers a communal point of view, describing what "we" saw and heard and did in response to the barnstormers (185). Faulkner takes up this communal perspective most famously in "A Rose for Emily," which also offers the voice of a mature, male, town-dwelling citizen confronting the unexpected.