Word Entry: The Ghostly Voice of Gossip in Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

1. "But the voice of the town is the most ghostlike: pervasive, shape-shifting, haunting." (413)

2. My guess: I think it means elusive or hard to keep track of.

3. Definition: Pervasive- existing in or spreading through every part of something
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary)

4. Explanation: My guess was close to the meaning of the word but not quite accurate. Pervasive in this context describes the narrator of the story as a kind of manifestation of the entire town's gossip. The gossip of the town exists in everything the narrator has to say.