We hang elephants here: excerpts from a novel
- WCU Author/Contributor (non-WCU co-authors, if there are any, appear on document)
- Miranda Darlene Miller (Creator)
- Institution
- Western Carolina University (WCU )
- Web Site: http://library.wcu.edu/
- Advisor
- Pamela Duncan
Abstract: In 1916, the town of Erwin, TN was made infamous for hanging the circus elephant Mary for the murder of her caretaker. Ever since, the town has carried around the moniker, “The Town that Hung the Elephant.” Appearing on storefronts, t-shirts, and book covers, the grainy photo of Mary’s limp body hanging from the railroad derrick has haunted the town for years, earning a profit for those seeking out the macabre and disgusting those in the town that just wish the world would forget its grisly past. But, perhaps the town is cursed. A hundred years after the hanging of Murderess Mary, another mad elephant, Bernice, kills the ringmaster of a local circus, and businessman turned politician Dan Lange is paying for votes with blood. Rallying the people of the region, Lange obtains enough signatures to have the murdering elephant hanged in the same spot where Mary met her maker, the recently closed CSX railyard. The first public hanging on American soil in years draws together an unlikely group of people–Todd Bedford, an Erwin native and green field reporter sent back home to cover the hanging; Danielle Myers, a University of Tennessee student, Florida transplant, and animal rights activist; and Jim Bedford, a recently displaced railroad worker and Lange supporter. Though sharing little in common, the fates of these three people are intertwined through their attempts to save Bernice and bring the attention of the nation to one small town in East Tennessee. This creative thesis will be comprised of three representative chapters of the working novel We Hang Elephants Here. As an Appalachian native and scholar, I have had a keen interest in representing the region with the respect and honesty it deserves. Drawing on inspiration from Appalachian authors such as Ron Rash and Barbara Kingsolver, I first seek to address and dispel harmful Appalachian stereotypes that have been traditionally perpetuated in books, television, and films. I will focus strongly on place writing, which I define as representing equally the positive and negative aspects of a region the author has chosen. This novel will take place in my hometown of Erwin, TN and is based on the hanging of the elephant, a historical event that happened in Erwin in 1916. Furthermore, in the vein of Ann Pancake’s activist novel Strange as This Weather Has Been (2007), I will focus on the effects of the local railroad industry closing on the town and its people. Overall, this novel seeks to comment on the sensationalism of the historical event, address regional problems often overshadowed by stereotypes and absurd history, and understand the faults and virtues of Appalachia through insider and outsider perspectives.
We hang elephants here: excerpts from a novel
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Created on 3/1/2017
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Additional Information
- Publication
- Thesis
- Language: English
- Date: 2017
- Keywords
- Appalachian Studies, Southern Literature
- Subjects
- Erwin (Tenn.) -- In popular culture
- Stereotypes (Social psychology) -- Appalachian Region, Southern
- Appalachian Region, Southern -- Social conditions
- Railroads -- Economic aspects -- Tennessee -- Erwin