Blog Post #2

In both, “A Rose to Emily” by William Faulkner and “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell demonstrated the use of historical context to convey the idea of racial issues used by the Southern whites and the Englishmen. At this time whites were thought to be the superior race especially against Africans who were looked as simply a tool.

Faulkner’s story created a setting around the time period of the post civil war where racial issues were at an all time high in the United States. The main character, Emily, was of great importance to the small town because she was a representation of old southern tradition. Southern whites valued Emily because of her background and since Africans had recently “received their rights” she was a form of their past that they wanted to maintain alive. The town expected Emily to live up to that expectation, but did otherwise by associating herself with Homer Barron, who is often referred to as “The Negro”. The diction used reflects the racial issues that stripped African identity away by referring to them as “negro” as opposed to their actual name . In the quote, “no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron…” (37-38) further shows the implications set upon Africans that serves as a constant reminder of their status in society, which was nothing more nor equal to the value of whites despite their rights. This concept shifted the dynamic of Emily’s relationship with Homer when she found out that he “was not a marrying man” that lead him to the cause of his death. He no longer was a person to her, but became an item acting as he belonged to and only her reflecting her entitlement towards things that she wanted. Even though the racial issue was not as evident the small details help to analyze the discrimination on Africans.

In Orwell’s story the racial issue that ultimately lead the Englishman into killing the elephant was evident because he describes his own inner conflict. “...[He] had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool.” indicating that he had no other choice because he was white, and if he had done otherwise it could have been portrayed as a crack inside white authority. His decision was forced upon him because he believed that “A white man mustn’t be frightened in front of ‘natives’” serving as a way to protect the image of the Englishman's imperialistic power. Majority of his inner conflict was caused by his constant worrisome over the native’s thought of him, but despite the fact that he knew that killing the elephant must be done cautiously to avoid being killed like a commoner. “The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill.”(47) shows the racial conflicts because he believed that he was more important than the others to die the same way.