Blog Post #2: Topic #1

Blog Post #2: Topic #1

The short story“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner takes place between the late 1800’s and the early 1900’s  in the southern region of the United States. Furthermore, the Southern whites in this story live in a small society where everyone knows each other's business. Also, it is evident that social status and reputation is an important part of their life style. It is shown that they discriminate and devalue the African American population in their town. Most of them in the story are portrayed as servants. Faulkner states “...the mayor--he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should appear on the streets without an apron….”  as to show that even when they are not working they are still seen as servants and not free people. However, the discrimination and view of status is not limited to just African Americans. It also extends to outsiders of the town or people that are seen to be of lowers status as shown here when Emily shows interest in Homer Baron “At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, “Of Course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer.” But there were still others older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige- -”. It's quite astonishing to see how important social status was among these Southern whites to where they would treat a couple from different upbringings as an abnormality and as a threat to their way of life.

“Shooting an Elephant”  by George Orwell, takes place in IN Moulmein, in lower Burma in the 1930’s or so. In this situation, the British empire had control of this territory so naturally, there was an “...anti-European feeling….” to the police officers in charge.  In the short story is clear that the British see themselves as superior to the natives simply from the way they refer to them  “ ... it was a damn shame to shoot the elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie” However the townspeople had an influence over this particular British officer who was convinced that “...imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better”. This officer was aware of the injustices thrust upon the natives, and which made him more susceptible to their influence.   “ I often wonder whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool”.  He basically shot the elephant out of

peer pressure and the fact that he didn’t want to taint the townspeople’s opinion of him,

Both “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner and “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell,




portray a sense of superiority in their respective communities towards who they consider to be their

inferior counterparts. However, it is evident that they share many differences. The southern whites in

Faulkner's short story clearly value status and reputation more than the Englishmen in Orwell’s short

story. They go as far as discriminating another white person because he isn't from the south and has

an average job. In my opinion the Englishmen and the Southern whites could have gotten along,

however the British police officer in the story was aware that what he was doing was wrong. And it

safe to say that he probably wasn't the only one.  Even though the Englishmen had established their

rule over the natives of that land, the white southerners who supposedly live in a free society had less

of a conscious, compared to the officer,  about how they treated people. Which boldly shows the

mindset and time difference of the Southern whites.