Blog Post #2- Topic #1 Amanda Hovnanian

Blog #2 Topic #1

Amanda Hovnanian

In “A Rose for Emily” by Faulkner and “Shooting an Elephant ” by George Orwell there were elements of race and dynamics created by race that were displayed in the literature. In “A Rose for Emily” it is apparent that Emily thinks herself above the servant that she has because of her skin color and social status. Similarly, the main character in “Shooting an Elephant” believes himself higher in status and in control of the Burmese because of his skin color. In both stories race is very evident, but in different ways.

The story of “A Rose for Emily” follows the life of Emily, who is a white women living in the south just after America’s Civil War. Her family was a prominent part of the small town’s society, and thusly Emily was very well known and respected. Emily being the prominent white woman that she is has a servant. However the servant that appears in the story is black and the narrator continual refers to him as “the Negro.” Faulkner does not specifically, openly discuss race in this story, but through details like setting, time period, and word choice we can infer that there are racist elements in and around this story.

When reading “Shooting an Elephant” the reader is very much aware of the issues of race and the hierarchy in this society. This story takes place in Burma around the 1920s when Britain was colonizing many different countries, like Burma. The main character in this story is a white man assigned to be a type of police officer in Burma by the British government. Throughout the story the man is obviously resentful of his position and the people of Burma, often referring to the Burmese as “sneering yellow faces,” and that “an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie.” The narrator is blatantly prejudice against the Burmese people and displays it through his thoughts, words, and actions towards the people of Burma.

These two stories both have aspects of racism in them, however one’s racist themes are more forward than other. In “A Rose for Emily” the times were changing from a time where racism and slavery were acceptable to a time where those things are not to be spoken about. After the Civil War, the patriarchal idea that whites were better than blacks had been toppled and then a time of social readjustment occurred. Perhaps we see this transition in the fact that the only black character in this story is not referred to as a “slave” but as a “servant.” However, this character is still referred to as a “negro” so, I’m not entirely convinced that the narrator and theme of this story have completely moved away from these old, racist ideals. Essentially, the racism in “A Rose for Emily” is more subtile than in “Shooting an Elephant.” The reader is almost bombarded with the racist point of view of the narrator in “Shooting an Elephant.” The narrator calls the people of Burma “yellow” and “coolies” and is very open about his resentment toward these people and the society they all live in. During British colonization, there was this patriarchal ideal that the (white) British people were the better, well-educated, sophisticated beings and that the people and places they colonized were simpletons. Thus, this idea that the white man is the more superior species lead to the glaring more confrontational racism that we see in “Shooting an Elephant.”

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