Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Post assignment #3
Eudora Welty's "Where is the Voice Coming From?" was a short fictional story based on the murder of NAACP official Medgar Evers by racist and white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith. Welty used her skill as a novelist and short fiction author in the creation of this work to contribute to the demonstration of public outcry shorty after Ever's murder. Welty's purpose in creating a narrative from the persepective of the killer was to show how spiteful, racist, ignorant, and homicidal the state of mind of Byron De La Beckwith played out during Ever's murder. Being of local Mississippi state background, It is most likely that Wetly's depiction of La Beckwith's character portrayed reality to very close accuracy; I would'nt be suprised if the killer really did use such vocabulary and speak in such manners during his/thier plot to murder Ever's. Welty's story was published in the "The New Yorker" and most likely was an atttempt to reach all audiences as well as working class/middle class Americans in the north and nationwide. I believe Welty's story effectively catches the imagination of it's readers and expresses a true injustice of mississippi society. Sadly however the authority of governance and politics in mississippi prove justice is uttlery almost worthless as even after this violent crime of a prominent leader, allowed Beckwith to boast of his deeds, and not pay for his crimes, with only to be convicted of murder more than 30 years later. Perhaps it is because the south will still attempt to hold on to confederate identities/dreams for as long as possible, including the ideal of racism and white supremacy; A motivation to hold on to a defeated pride stemming from the Civil War? I doubt with current changes from the 50's and 60's of demographic trends of increase and empowerment of the black population in mississippi, that the remaining white supremacists' abuse of authority(in politics) with go unanswered like before, and would perhaps result looking more like the L.A. riots rather than a bunch of kids walking into paddy wagons waving flags around.
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Interesting reflections - what insight does Welty give us into Beckwith's pschylogy, do you think? Is he an extraordinary person, or an ordinary one?
ReplyDeleteWe're going to talk about the LA riots later in the semester - the comparisons are interesting (although of course that was close to 20 years ago now).
Welty, from her perspective of beckwith in her article shows a typical racist ordinary white southerner. Beckwith's willingness to take the initiative into commiting murder of a prominent NAACP official is what I believe makes him somewhat extraordinary as opposed to his racist bretheren. In welty's story, Beckwith's wife even passively accepts his homicidal acts. Regardless of how close Welty was in depicting the southern racist mentality, I personally believe most whites at the time were not any less racist, as they had historically typically hung blacks for amusement which also including whole families whom would come out to watch with hangings thier children. I do not believe all southern whites were crazy though! im GUESSING something like at least 80-90% where trapped in that racist state of mind. so in conclusion, Beckworth was pretty much unextraordinary to me.
ReplyDeleteI dont think unextraordinary is a word.. lol i meant to write ordinary!
ReplyDeleteAlthough unextraodinary would be an interesting word to coin and use in a poem!
ReplyDeletehmmm...
ReplyDelete