Ethos In Shooting An Elephant

Exemplary British author, poet, and “… prophet of British Imperialism”, Rudyard Kipling had taken a fascination to Burma. His interest, as a reflection of the aforementioned title, “prophet”, had seemed to have stemmed from British colonization in present day Myanmar. A personification of the colonial mindset, he was arrogant, better than most, pompous, so naturally the experience he had gained from his travel amplified his Weltanschauung, the comprehensive wide world perception from German philosophy that is pertinent to Epistemology. This was the epitome that which was opposite of George Orwell’s in a written recollection of his tour in Burma through his essay, Shooting an Elephant.

Pathos is a rhetorical device used for providing emotion to the reader. He wants the reader to feel sympathetic towards the mistreatment of African-Americans. In the introduction, the first rhetorical device he introduced is pathos. Coates present pathos when he introduced Clyde Ross. He titles the first chapter as, “So that’s just one of my losses”.

Orwell's sureness and strength in his article acts as evidence of weapons and their effects, because it helps confirm his claim as something that will for sure happen. This allows the audience to trust Orwell's claim, and his good development creates a very substantial article. Orwell also uses ethos by connecting himself with society by using informal language stating, "We were once told". Orwell is affirming that he and his audience were manipulated by the state. He is putting himself on the audience’s level, which makes the audience feel like they can relate to him.

A significant detail in “Shooting an Elephant” is the last sentence, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” Orwell places this sentence in the essay because it directly supports his purpose of expressing the negative impact on imperialism. Imperialism causes Orwell to fall subject to the pressure of being more powerful than the native people. His motive behind killing the elephant is to “impress the natives”. A level of power is expected from the imperialist officers; if they do not live up to these expectations they are ridiculed by both the oppressors and the natives. By shooting the elephant Orwell experiences an epiphany that his motive of saving face fuels oppression further

For example, Mr.Gilmer uses Pathos when making Mayella explain what happened on the supposed day Tom abused and took advantage of her, the reasoning is that in the book it says “Mayella stared at him and burst into tears. She cover her mouth with her hands and sobbed. ”lee241 When this scene happened Mr.Gilmer was questioning Mayella. This showed a negative holistically in the argument; Pathos was strengthened because of the reason it appealed the audience emotion making them feel bad for her, this helped the argument because the audience felt emotion when Mayella was crying this might cause an unbiased audience to feel and think that Tom could possibly be guilty. Also, Mr.Gilmer used Ethos appealing to the audiences good morals for this reason

It always seems as if life turns out to be much easier when people model their lives after the expectations of any kind of majority. George Orwell’s experience in Shooting an Elephant suggests that this isn’t always the case. In the essay, Orwell happens to be the police officer that gets tasked to re-gain control of a rampaging elephant that is destroying Moulmein, Burma. Orwell soon learns that the elephant is merely going through a period of “must” and is hesitant to kill the elephant. Orwell eventually kills the elephant with his special rifle after he was baited into doing the action by a large crowd of residents.

Hannah Edmiston Boudreau AP Language Friday 25 September, 2015 Shooting an Elephant Analyzing Rhetorical Devices Shooting an Elephant, written by George Orwell in 1936, describes his experience working as a British officer located in Moulmein, Burma. He writes his essay to reveal the cruelty and disastrous outcome of imperialism he witnesses. Orwell uses strong resource of language such as symbolism, metaphors and imagery to express his disdain for British imperialism. Orwell uses symbolism to connect the character of the elephant to the effects of imperialism.

This narrative piece is an effective expository technique that describes the narrator’s thoughts and tone. Orwell uses oxymoron such as “grinning corpse” and paradox phrases such as “the story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes”. Another paradox statement is shown in “I perceived this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys”. Orwell’s decisions were briskly altered as he was deciding on whether to kill the elephant or not. His mind altered from “I ought not to shoot him” to “I had got to do it” and also to “But I did not want to shoot the elephant”.

To begin, the influences of each character lead to the creation of their own values and beliefs. It is evident, that the background of which each protagonist bases their values off of, are completely different. In Shooting An Elephant, he is a police officer which in this society makes him an obvious target; due to him being in an alliance with the British. He explains that, “the insults hooted after me got on my nerves” and this is a factor for the silence of his voice (Orwell). Orwell develops a character, that struggles with controlling his beliefs since he is a member of the minority in Moulmein. In addition, he fights with his inner thoughts because he knows that he is “young and ill-educated” but he continues to lock up innocent people

In the end Orwell admits to feeling like “an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” (Orwell, 2014, p. 234). Orwell, as the British police officer, no longer acts according to his own inclinations. Through the ordeal involving the elephant Orwell comes to the realization of his lost liberty yet the reader observes that he lost it when he first began his job as a British imperial officer. The British Empire dictates most every action done by Orwell; he has become numb to it and replaced his initial resistance with a hate for all that surrounds him.

Pathos is persuasion by appealing to the emotions. It encompasses all emotional appeals in order make an audience more receptive to the conclusion. The success of the persuasiveness of any given speech depends on the emotional dispositions of the audience; for we do not judge in the same way when we celebrate and grieve or when we are hostile and friendly. As a consequence, the orator has to arouse emotions simply because emotions have the power to manipulate our judgments and

The motive of this essay is a protest regarding economic and social injustices. Additionally, the ethos of this story is that Mr. Orwell struggles within himself to find the means to kill the elephant. Economically it was a burden to the owner and an injustice to kill the animal for the sole reason of the pressures. The pathos can be presented towards the author is said that he must kill an elephant for the sole purpose of not looking like a fool. Logos in this story are that he used the death of the coolie to justify

George Orwell uses societal pressure in “Shooting An Elephant” to show the pressures a person faces. In “Shooting An Elephant” Orwell shoots an elephant that supposedly ravaged a bazaar. While going to find the elephant he had no intentions of shooting the elephant but just to scare it away. Once he started to look for the elephant the village started to follow Orwell. The village was only interested in shooting the elephant, “They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot”(Orwell 1321).

There are only two distinct species of elephants left in the world: The African elephant and the Asian elephant. The reason is poaching. By poaching elephants it affects the food chain, habitat loss and coming into conflict with communities. Elephants are just like humans and should not be poached.

Equally important, Pathos is an appeal to emotion, and is a way of convincing an audience of an argument by creating an emotional response. Stephen Yin, uses Pathos to sympathize with the emotions of the reader, illustrate an image, and create a sense of relatedness and familiarity. For instance, Steph Yin, begins by saying, “If you’re reading this at home, pause and put on a song you can’t resist dancing to. Go on, bop your head to the beat. Let yourself wiggle a bit.