Blog Post #2 - Eden

From a historical perspective, the power dynamic of Southern whites and Englishmen are comparable in their respective eras. In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, Southern whites were shown to be the only voice in the story, whereas in George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Englishmen were depicted as being inclined towards the colonized Burmese. In both stories, race plays a role in distinguishing the portrayal of influence.

Faulkner’s story takes place from the late 19^th century to the early 20^th century. In this time period after the abolition of slavery, there was an African American whose role in the story was akin to that of a slave. This minor character is always referred to as the “Negro” by the others, practically all of whom are southern whites. Even in two of his few appearances, the Negro is noted to be “going in and out with a market basket.” Besides these lines portraying his usage as a laborer for Emily throughout the story, it also shows how little he matters compared to the other characters. He only appears briefly before disappearing again whenever he is mentioned. As the majority, the southern whites are the driving force of their town, and so they have all the influence in the story.

Orwell’s story has its setting in Burma of the 1920’s, where a British police officer is the focus of the story. Unlike in Faulkner’s story that takes place after an era, “Shooting an Elephant” takes place during its era of British imperialism. As part of the colonizers, the Englishmen would be expected to be have the main influence in the plot, however, it is actually the colonized who has the upper hand in this power dynamic. The narrator acknowledges that his role was that of “only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” A puppet’s main purpose is to entertain its audience, and one way of doing so is to cater to the audience’s desire. In this point of the story, the narrator is the puppet, while the audience was the Burmans. Like a puppet, the Englishman’s only course of action when it came to the elephant, was to shoot it like the locals expected of him. Regardless of his will, the Burmese natives had influence over the white man.

Both stories have similarities in their power dynamics of different races. Although the influence leans towards southern whites in Faulkner’s story, influence leans away from Englishmen in Orwell’s story. In both, the power dynamic favored the majority, whether it was the southern whites or the Burmese people. It is the minority, the negro and the Englishmen, whose presence does not have much weight in their stories. It is in part due to the difference in numbers of the members in their societies. Partially because of Southern whites’ belief in gentility and their greater numbers, they were the ones with influence. Likewise, the British may have believed in their superiority, but the Englishmen being the minority among the Burmese and Indians, his influence was marginal in comparison.

Word Count : 515