Blog Post 2 Topic 1

In the short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner, the dynamic of power between Southern Whites and the African American people had and underlined feel of ongoing degradation. During the era of this story, the civil war had ended in 1865 which allowed for the slaves to be freed from slavery. Yet, the people of the South proceeded to act as though they were of superior ranking compared to the African American citizens. Within the story, the main character Miss Emily Grierson was a prime example of this superiority stance. She was portrayed as a White woman that may have been mentally ill yet was stuck in a pre-civil war state of mind. Her helper, a black man who catered to Miss Emily’s needs, was displayed as an unspoken slave for which he served her until she died.

There were also moments within the story that reflected on how the town persisted to degrade African Americans by treating them as a lesser form of slavery. For example, Colonel Sartoris, the mayor during the time, enacted a law where all Black women had to wear an apron when roaming the streets. This displays a clear act for keeping the African American woman powerless despite the overturn of slavery.

In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, there is a struggle of the Englishmen trying to dominate power over the Burmese people. In 1824, the English invaded and took over Burma but later the Burmese people began demanding control back with their actions. Through Orwell’s experience as a police officer in Burma, he begins the story by saying that he was “hated by large numbers of people”. Orwell speaks about how the Burmese had very little respect for the Europeans. Even though he was of the law, they would laugh and taunt him because of his race. Throughout the story, he expressed an overwhelming sense of unimportance for being European but was granted a moment of superiority when making the decision to kill the elephant. He stated, “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching.” Although he knew that he would rather avoid killing the elephant, he felt the shift in power when executing the murder.

Not only was there racism expressed towards the Europeans, there was also a reciprocation of racist intent towards the Burmese. A passage stated, “it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie.” The younger European police officers felt that due to his race the human life did not matter as much as the elephant’s.

When comparing the two stories, the dynamics in power show opposite spectrums of racism. For Faulkner’s story, it expressed a normalized stigma for hidden racism due to the aftermath of the Civil War. Although people may have realized that keeping an African American as a slave was wrong, they continuously kept a separation between the two groups of people and made one feel just as powerless as a they were during the times of slavery. For Orwell’s story, it expressed a need for some sense of power after being blatantly powerless from both the Burmese and the Europeans. Both stories used the influence of race to dominate in superiority.

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