Unnamed People of Yoknapatawpha 5

Throughout The Hamlet, Faulkner frequently focalizes the narrative through the collective third-person "the people" in much the same way he uses "we" in "A Rose for Emily." The people of Yoknapatawpha's "countryside" are described as a self-organizing social body, which can be compared to a "swarm of bees" (128), a "hive" or "a cloud of pink-and-white bees" (349).