His humiliation and sense of defeatare conveyed through his compelling words. He shows the audience that through this incident, hereceives a “better glimpse than [he] had had before of the real nature of imperialism — the realmotives for which despotic governments act” (Orwell).The whole essay, with its appeals of ethosand pathos, uses of imagery, and satirical techniques, boils down to the irony between theoutward and inward appearances of a British authority figure in Burma, or any other state withinthe British sphere of influence. This irony shows how imperialism ruins everyone involved— starting from the inner core. Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant.…
Think Twice Before You Shoot In “Shooting an Elephant,” from The Norton Reader, George Orwell explains his personal experience in an imperialistic county where he feels as though he is forced to shoot an elephant that had escaped into a town killing a man. His thoughts were not set on killing the wild animal but under circumstances, Orwell felt as though he would be seen as a fool to the natives if he did not live up to the expectation of the natives to kill the elephant. Once Orwell shot the elephant he had to watch as it lay slowly dying, seemingly not wanting to die the elephant remained to hold on to the life he had left. Orwell ends up killing the elephant once and for all after many brutal attempts, and then he sits analyzing weather…
Shooting an Elephant was a short story written in 1950 by George Orwell. The story is an excerpt from his book called, “1984”. In this story, Orwell explains a situation in which he was working as an officer in Lower Burma, where he was forced to shoot an elephant that was having an attack of must. In this story, he uses very good symbolism, including the elephant, the gun and multiple shots he fired, and a dead unskilled worker, called a coolie. In the excerpt, Orwell uses the elephant that he shot to symbolize the British Empire, the world power that he worked for but also greatly disagreed with.…
Would any one second question shooting a mad dog that had already killed a man and caused large amounts of damage? In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell was justified in shooting the destructive elephant because he did not want to appear foolish to the locals, it had killed a man, and because the owner was responsible for not making sure the elephant was watched over. The elephant had gone completely rampant by the time Orwell made his decision to kill it, so legally it was his duty to end his rampage. The elephant was destroying property “They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes,” (Orwell 3), and even killed a man “I rounded the hut and saw a man’s dead body sprawling in the mud,” (Orwell 3). Any animal that kills a man, or even causes a significant amount of destruction,…
Mahatma Gandhi once said that “keep your values positive because your values becomes your destiny” (Jelly), and the two pieces of literature Shooting An Elephant by George Orwell and The Guest by Albert Camus both talk about how people’s values can come into conflict. They both also talk about how based on the choices that people make at that particular moment in their life that choice will impact them for the rest of their lives. There are times when people come across a situation which puts them in a difficult position to choose what to do as they are stuck between two values which contradict each other. However, it is these values that influence the choice that they are about to make and some of those choices could be a life changing. In…
George Orwell expresses different tones in the two essays, Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging. In Shooting an Elephant he expresses his anger towards the Burmese people, referring to them as, “evil little spirited beasts who tried to make my job impossible.” In A Hanging Orwell shows how the people around him take their job seriously and it's a very grim tone, but after they hang the man the tone lightens as they make jokes and laugh together. Orwell’s life influenced his essay Shooting an Elephant, an example is when he writes, “the only time in my life that I have been important enough.”…
Gorge, Orwell writes about an elephant in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” where the main craters is a police man for the British emperor in one of the eastern countries. This police man has an internal power struggle with his duty and internal feelings of what he knows as right. In this country he imply about how the people there are cage and are oppressed by the British Emperor he is also concern with his duty and how the people view him. Even though the policeman is authority figure he takes on the role of the tyrant.…
Is it possible that peer pressure is the cause of the majority of wrongdoing amongst our society? Ever since the beginning of time the social ladder and what people think of you has become a custom of what seems to be every day life. For some reason in particular doing the wrong thing draws positive attention to people. Should this act in fact be frowned upon, or supported based on the fact you could possibly be seen higher in society. George Orwell in his writing Shooting An Elephant discusses three keys messages the fear of humiliation seems to be more powerful than the right thing, always follow what you believe is the right thing, and the wrong thing seems to be more often than not better appreciated by your peers.…
The gathering of thousands of Burmese people causes that fear to develop. He does not want to disappoint the crowd and allow them to think that he is just another coward European. In a sense, the police officer wants to show that the Europeans are strong willed people. However, shooting an elephant to hide his fears is not bravery, it is simply a manipulation to hide his true intentions. A better decision would be to not give in to the social pressure and make his own…
George Orwell faces multiple conflicts in Shooting an Elephant. The first is British imperialism. The British took over Burma and they are treating the natives terribly. Second, the natives aren’t taking this imperial government kindly either as they continuously mock Orwell because he’s a symbol of the government and a vulnerable “obvious target” (Orwell). Orwell hates the way the British impose their power on the Burmese.…
In the short story “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell used diction to show how the tone changed throughout the story. First, Orwell uses words like “hated” and “bitter” to describe the negative detached tone of how people react to police officers. The reader begins to see how hated the man is by society. Next, the author begins to tell that the man was asked to go kill an elephant. Orwell uses words like “ happy” and “excited” to show how much the minds of the people changed from hating the police officer to him being worth watching.…
Adrianna Geisler ENGL1010 Essay #1 8 Sept. 2015 Reading Response Essay for “Shooting an Elephant” In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the author is trying to show how imperialism can have strong effects on someone. In addition, Orwell describes his personal decision to shoot an elephant after the animal kills a man.…
In the essay “Shooting an Elephant”, it is based on a man who is pressured to kill an elephant that was thought to be wild. This adventure took place in Moulmein, in Lower Burma. Could he have saved this elephant and done what his heart wanted to do? Or was the peer pressure by others to strong? Orwell withheld the…
In the story of the elephant Mr. Orwell paints a picture of another type of inner conflict that he experienced while working in Burma. That is, when one knows deep inside what they should rightly do, but due to outside pressures and influences they choose another course of action. The anecdote is about an elephant that is out of control and is ravaging a village. George Orwell is called out to neutralize the situation, but he does not know what he can do to help things. When he arrived at the scene he was told the elephant got away to paddy fields a thousand yards away.…
Part 1: Exploring “Shooting An Elephant” by George Orwell 1. What words could you use to describe the character that Orwell makes of himself in this piece? He illustrates himself as vulnerable, powerless, weak and, someone who seeks for acceptance. He is also sympathetic yet confused.…