“Whenever you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens to allow in more light.” This quote by Vera Nazarian sums up the reason for reading. Especially in “Shooting An Elephant”, readers can learn so much about the world and the people who live in it. For example, elocutionists learn many details about the nature of man by analyzing George Orwell’s style in this literary work. As a result of George Orwell manipulating the elements of style such as tone, pace, and character development in “Shooting An Elephant”, readers can conclude that there are many sides, or natures of men. Orwell’s speech throughout his work allows perusers to put the nature of man into perspective.
Novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic George Orwell in his essay, “Shooting an Elephant” discusses his life in Burma during the 1930’s while the british were in control. Orwell recounts personal experiences and his feelings on the actions the British took in order to oppress the Burmese. While doing this he uses a variety of diction, imagery, and first person POV in order to convey his message. Diction is the first rhetorical device Orwell employ in order to convey his message using his word choice. He uses the word Bazaar in the third paragraph which is a middle eastern marketplace.
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.
In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, there are many uses of literary devices. Orwell uses similes as key component throughout the story. Similes help the reader understand the tone and grasp what is actually occurring at a certain moment. For example, when the elephant took somebody`s life in the story, Orwell states,“The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit” (Orwell 2). This simile gives the reader the impression that the elephant took the skin off the man's body as easy and clean as cutting the skin off of a little rabbit.
The townspeople become excited when they finally see a police officer armed with a weapon that is ready to end the destruction of the “rampaging” elephant. However, the narrator has no intentions of killing the animal. Actually, he knows that he does not want to kill the elephant as he was it as a “serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided” (4). At this point in the story, his conflict transgresses to more than just right versus wrong. He now feels pressured to either please the “natives’ and take down this “beast”, fulfill his role as a white British policeman, or to do what he believes is the best thing to do.
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…”
He took another long pull on his magnum. "I got a lot to regret about my life," he said. "But I'm goddamn proud of you, Mountain Goat, the way you turned out. Whenever I think of you, I figure I must have done something right." "'Course you did."
Even though Orwell did commit the crime of shooting an elephant, throughout the story he used ethos, pathos, and figurative language to convince the audience if given the opportunity he would never shoot an elephant again because the elephant represents the innocence of people. First and foremost, Orwell establishes his ethos. As stated in Everything’s an Argument, ethos is described as the author's credibility. He establishes his ethos right from the beginning of the story when he states he works for the British but he despises them. This showed the audience his state of mind at the time and helps support his claim, “ when a white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys.” Another example of the ethos that was used was the fact he used multiple Latin
This would enable him to do bad things but still look good to the public. A hero would never do something like this. He is basically just tricking everybody into thinking that what he is doing is good. If he was a hero and not a robber baron he would actually help everybody in need and not hide the bad thing that he has done. For many reasons Andrew Carnegie was not a hero but a robber baron.
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.