Leadership William Faulkner\'s Lo! Shows

Leadership

William Faulkner's Lo! shows an interesting perspective on leadership. The President in this story is supposed to be the leader, but seldom takes a true leadership position. He defers the problem to the Secretary, which causes consternation on the latter's part. Moreover, his response to the problem of the Indians is to wish them away. His desire to push the issue away so that he can deal with matters more to his taste is demonstrated by his views and actions, including exonerating a murderer and giving them title to all the land surrounding the ford.

The Chickasaw chief Weddell shows much stronger leadership. In response to the white people coming to his land and setting up shop at the ford, he determines to solve the problem. To do this from a position of weakness, he brings his entire clan to the President, in order to force the unwilling President to deal with the issue at hand. With calm, he leverages the President's lack of willingness to deal with the situation in order to get what he wants, that being control of the ford and an absence of white speculators.

The juxtaposition of these two leadership types in this story shows how by taking risks and dealing with the problem head-on, Weddell is able to achieve an outcome he desires. We can see this clearly in the beginning of the story, when the two Chickasaw are talking outside the President's house. They are essentially treating the President like a child, manipulating him to achieve their desired outcomes. The President, on the other hand, is a weak leader. He is unwilling to take significant risks, such as condemning the nephew to death in front of the entire Chickasaw nation. He is also unwilling to learn about his opponent in the matter, and never truly sees the Chickasaw as anything other than an agglomeration of people he wants nothing to do with. The contrast between the strong leadership of Weddell and the weak leadership of the President is evidenced in Weddell achieving his outcomes and the President having significant difficulty in achieving any of his.