Blog Post #2 Topic 1

            In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” and George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” the Southern whites and the Englishmen are portrayed to be superior over the other races, thus reflecting the issues with white supremacy at the time. Initially, it appears that the white people are looking down on the people of color in both stories. However, after a closer reading of “Shooting an Elephant,” it becomes evident that the lowly Burmese hold more power over the Englishmen, which is a distinguishing factor between the two texts.

“A Rose for Emily” takes place many years after the American Civil War. Although the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves, had already been issued, African Americans are still treated as an inferior race through the enforcement of Jim Crow laws and racial segregation. This inequality is highlighted throughout the story. For instance, the mayor, Colonel Sartoris, issues “…an edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron…”(37-38). This forces African American women to always appear as servants to the higher class Southern whites, thus “enslaving” them. In addition, African Americans are often spoken about in a derogatory manner through the usage of words, such as “Negro” and “nigger.” These words are used in a very casual manner and everyone acts as if those words are socially acceptable to say. This behavior further exemplifies the idea that the Southern whites believed that African Americans were beneath them.

Similarly, in “Shooting an Elephant,” which is set during the 1920s-1930s in a British-colonized town in lower Burma, the Englishmen view the Burmese townspeople and Indians as inferior races. When the Englishmen discuss the shooting of the elephant, some believe that “…it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie (48).” This lack of respect illustrates how little the Englishmen value lives of other races – an elephant’s life is greater than that of a human life.

In “Shooting an Elephant,” although the main character is a police officer in the town, he is treated with disrespect and constantly mocked by the natives. When he encounters a ravaging elephant loose in the town, he is conflicted on whether he should shoot it. “Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd – seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind” (46). Despite being an authority figure, he is pressured into shooting the elephant to avoid being ridiculed by the townspeople. This demonstrates that in this story, the Burmese hold more power than the Englishmen. In contrast, in “A Rose for Emily,” the Southern whites are more powerful than the African Americans, who are depicted as submissive. For instance, Emily’s housekeeper, an African American man, appears to obey her every order without resistance. Although he may have known that Emily killed her husband, he never dared to expose her secret and served her until she passed away.

In both stories, the authors use the common theme of white supremacy to reflect the prevalent ideas at the time. Analyzing both texts offers a greater insight into the racial prejudices and inequality in those historical contexts.