In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the author writes about his experience with dealing a rampant elephant in British Colonial Burma. Privilege is usually viewed as a positive attribute, however Orwell explores all of the negatives that privileges can bring, which can be applied to modern day social expectations and politics. In order to highlight its effects on a personal and a widespread level, he uses the rhetorical device of figurative language. The figurative language__________ Throughout the text, the author reveals the notion that privilege is a double edge sword which causes personal conflicts and the illusion of power. Orwell uses imagery to show personal conflicts in the main character.
Despite being a colonial policeman, he is compelled into slaying an elephant by the Burmese colonists to save both his own, and ironically, the Empire’s “face”. In response to this impactful experience, Orwell composes the essay “Shooting an Elephant”. Claiming that both the oppressor and the oppressed is impaired by imperialism, Orwell supports his statement through displaying the irony in his relationship with the natives, adding edges of displeasure and sarcasm in his voice, and vivid imageries of unpleasant situations in order to demonstrate his mixed feelings of frustration and guilt towards the empire’s doings. Due to the fact that British imperialism has established prejudice among locals and Europeans, Orwell’s relationship with the Burmese as a white policeman
George Orwell held a unique perspective on Britain’s involvement in Burma. Through his own experiences in Burma, he developed an inner struggle between following orders and opposing imperialism, that he expressed in the story Shooting an Elephant. Orwell was born under the name Eric Blair in colonial India. As an adult, he joined the Imperial Police stationed in Burma, where he soon discovered a conflict brewing within himself. He was naturally a reflective person, analyzing what he saw to be obvious disparities in the two sides of an Imperialistic relationship.
In the end of this essay the author decides that he should kill the elephant instead of letting it live. In Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell has some important things that people need to know. The first thing that George Orwell want to tell the readers in the essay Shooting an Elephant, is about how he realized that the British empire relied on imperialism very much. George Orwell noticed that the British empire was very into imperialism because of when he went to stay in Burma to be a police officer for their people. Imperialism is the extending of a country’s power and influence through diplomacy and military force.
George Orwell’s essay, Shooting an Elephant, describes his experience killing an out of control elephant while working as a police officer in the British colony of Burma. It highlights the cruelness of imperialism by showing the effects of Britain's control of Burma. In his essay, Orwell utilizes figurative language in order to explain his opposition and hatred towards the system of imperialism. To begin with, Orwell objects the idea of imperialism through the use of imagery. While working for the British in Burma, Orwell witnesses some atrocious events: “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lockups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who has been flogged with bamboos…”
Orwell works mainly through implication, and Orwell’s abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, the dog, the functionaries, and their actions, words, and body language. Orwell, through his characters and their behaviors shows how capital punishment will eventually lead to the degradation of the humanity and violation of the sanctity of human life. In the story, the prisoner and his behavior plays a vital role to convey the message. He was treated as if he were an animal. “We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of the sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cage” (Orwell 100).
Just because you disagree with someone doesn’t mean you have to be disrespectful. This why Orwell chose to use a very respectful tone in this writing. Since Gandhi was such a prominent person in society Orwell didn’t want
Rhetorical Analysis of “A Hanging” In his personal narrative, “A Hanging”, George Orwell, a renowned British author, who often used his talents to criticize injustice and totalitarianism, describes an execution he witnessed in Burma while serving as an officer in the British Imperial Police. Originally published in The Adelphi, a British magazine, in 1931, the piece was written for educated, politically aware people in England, in hopes of provoking questions regarding the morality of capital punishment, and perhaps imperialist society overall, in those benefitting from such a system. Although he died nearly seventy years ago, his works are still influential and relevant today. Using vivid descriptions and a somber tone, Orwell recreates his experience in a tense narration that clearly shows his thesis concerning the value of human life and the wrongness inherent to a system that dismisses it so casually. As “A Hanging” is entirely anecdotal, Orwell relies on masterful writing to place the reader at the scene.
As an opponent of political and social injustice, author George Orwell shows his disapproval for political corruption and political injustice through the display of pathos. Likewise, in “Shooting an Elephant,” readers detect George Orwell’s subjective opinions on imperialism through persuasion using pathos. Throughout the essay, the narrator uses expressions and feelings of fear, hatred, anxiety, doubt, and distress at the fact that he is in a position of no authority to inform the audience of his disapproval.
Although Orwell does not agree with society’s wrongdoings, he is forced to obey. When Orwell is expected to shoot an elephant he remarks that he “did not in the least want to shoot him, but these people (the natives) expected it” of him and he was forced to do this against his will (Orwell 989). In this situation, Orwell takes on characteristics of a slave. The oppressor “wears a mask and his face grows to fit it.” The mask, or societal expectations eventually dehumanizes the individual’s face, or his humanistic qualities. It is important to note that this mask does not simply hide the individual; it changes the individual to fit the imperialistic