British Colonialism In George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'

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.

The speaker George Orwell, who was a member of the British Imperial Police for five years and discovered he did not like many aspects of British Imperialism. The tone is of negative and remorse towards the shooting of the elephant and also negativity towards imperialism. By looking at “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, one can see his strong use of imagery and metaphors, which shows us detailed and vivid descriptions of what imperialism is like, which is important because it helps people understand what imperialism felt like up-close and what the people went through. This personal narrative incorporates a great deal of ethos, since the author writes about his emotions and feelings of going through such an event. This narrative also contains pathos, since Orwell is a writer who has had first-hand experience in being in the place while British Imperialism was going on in Burma.

“Shooting an Elephant”, by George Orwell, is a story of Orwell as a cop in a barbaric society where the law was never really taken seriously. As you can probably tell from the title of the story, an elephant gets shot and Orwell is the one who did it. Many believe that Orwell killed the elephant because he was peer pressured to do so by the townspeople that were staring at him and mocking him for being a weak coward. That may seem like the right answer, but then Orwell begins to write about the thoughts that were running through his mind.

To begin “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell covers the narrator’s thoughts on imperialism and how the British control had affected his life. By reading the passage, the reader learns that the Orwell believed imperialism was “evil”

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.

In the beginning of, “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell establishes that the separation of power in colonial Burma resides more than just black-and-white. While it seems he holds symbolic authority and military supremacy as a British police officer, Orwell is still powerless to stop the hatred and abuse he receives from the oppressed Burmese. This hatred, that may be perceived, will become an influential reason as to why he would feel guilty regardless if he would have have or haven’t taken responsibility for his actions. Orwell, in the beginning, views the elephant as,”... not a wild elephant, but a tame one which had gone ‘must’”, but he later realizes, that the elephant itself, represents more than just an animal. Orwell is able to better comprehend

The cause for the drop in elephants is poachers killing them for their tusks. The effect is less elephants in the world. If there are less elephants what will people see on safari trips. Poachers are very bad because they kill elephants. Poachers need to just get a real job.

Reading Response “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is a story about what he went through when he was a policeman in Burma, and why he shot an elephant, “solely to avoid looking [like] a fool.” “[He] was hated by a large numbers of people,” and in a way tortured for things that he didn’t even understand what he was doing. He perceived that him and his other european cohorts were doing the right thing, but he also hated that fact that they were there. At first I assumed that this essay was going to be about just killing an elephant for fun and how it made him feel.

George Orwell: “Shooting an Elephant In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell we get to look through the eyes of an officer in the India Imperial Police. Orwell represents the evils of imperialism by using symbolism including “The sea of yellow faces”, “the hunting rifle”, and “shooting the elephant”. Orwell’s use of “The sea of yellow faces” shows a deviation between the Burmese and himself. He shows this by stating “…I ought not to shoot him” (326). He doesn’t want to shoot the elephant but he knows he has to because they are watching and he has to prove his power.

In the short story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, a young man experiences a case of influence and peer pressure like none other. An English police officer is placed in a Burmese area and assigned to protect the people there. The people of this town are not fond of the outsider and treat him very poorly. In order for the officer to gain a kind of reassurance from the Burmese people, he must find a way to make them happy. In the story, George Orwell uses imagery and characterization in order to demonstrate how a rite of passage can be forced upon a person in order for that person to obtain their place in society.

The article states “he feared that critics in the special operations community would blame him while glossing over decisions by the high officers that contributed to the deaths. ‘they’re going to say: ‘Yep, it’s all your fault. You left him up there, behind, alive,” he said. This shows that officer slabanski feels like he should not entirely take the blame for the deaths that happned the war, and that others should be held accountable as well. He feels like he is taunted of the decision he has made while the higher ranked officers are not put to blame despite the fact that slabanski “requested to delay the mission by 24 hours to reduce the risks” but is denied the request to do so by the higher ranked officers.

Results from the trial lead many to believe justice wasn’t served. Defensive attorney John Adams used tactics to create confusion in the minds of the jurors so they could not be certain what actually took place. This proved to be very effective. Adam noted the crowd had been harassing the soldiers and also attacked them. There was no reliable evidence to back this up and it was generally believed, even if Preston was found guilty, he would be pardoned anyway.

The American government mistakenly considered those who were deemed disloyal a threat to the United States. Because of that, the obvious red flag to answering no and no, respectively, to Questions 27 and 28 on the loyalty questionnaire, was being separated from the other inmates and isolated at a concentration camp called Tule Lake. The conditions at Tule Lake were filthy and overcrowded, and riots and protests were commonplace. Those who protested against their imprisonment were often sent to federal jail.

The texts are all very different in nature because they target different audiences. Comparing and contrasting the different texts will help us understand how audience and purpose affect the structure and content of texts There is a story. George Orwell, the famous writer, shot an elephant whilst serving in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. This event forms the basis for Orwell 's essay 'Shooting an Elephant '.

For their whole lives, people of a higher level of influence have told them what to do and when. But with BlueServo and websites like it, now it was their turn to influence other people’s lives. As with any bad habit, it soon becomes not enough, people felt the need to not only capture the criminals but administer their own idea of justice. A member of the Minuteman, an organized union of these surveillance addicted individuals, believed it was his turn to enact his version of justice. Unfortunately, one of the side effects of viewership is a complete misunderstanding of reality and this lead to the murder of two innocent Hispanic people.