Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell Essay

Orwell made it clear to the reader which side he wants to be on, which in this case is the elephant’s side. However, a big crowd is standing behind him, waiting for him to kill the creature he believed did not deserve to die. He knows the villagers do not like him (As mentioned at the beginning), that they made him feel small even if he was in a position of authority. One option was to leave the elephant be, and suffer the laughter of the natives. The other option is to ignore his beliefs, and shoot the

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.

For instance, in “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell claims that when a white man becomes tyrant, he destroys his own freedom. In order to prove his purpose, Orwell establishes authority through personal details, shifts in verb tense, and a reflective tone; appeals to logic with metaphor and analogy; and creates an emotional connection with the audience through a self-deprecating tone and vivid imagery. In the opening of “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell appeals to authority through personal details and shifts in verb tense that create a reflective tone. Specifically, the speaker first introduces himself: “I was sub-divisional police officer of the town…” (1). The detail about the speaker’s status in Burma signifies that he has first hand experience with imperialism.

Although the officer did not want to shoot the elephant and only shot the elephant to please the locals, his guilt began to affect him emotionally after the first shot. And with each shot into the elephant the guilt dug deeper into the officer’s soul. His guilt was elevated by the visualization of the locals with their knives and baskets approaching the elephant. As he understands that the elephant which was calm at the point in which he shot it, was now about to die and become a meal for those same locals.

The confederate flag was banned due to people finding it offensive. The government did not like the fact that it was a rebel banner. The citizens did not like it because it displayed rebellion of the war that had happened during the Civil War. - they think no one was showing respect for the veterans that were in the war. Another reason that the confederate was banned is because people thought it was a rebellious flag.

Orwell describes the burmese prisoners and the cages they were put in in vivid detail, he says, “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups..." He does this to show how horrible the British treated the people of Burma. This use of imagery also incites pathos in the the hearts and mind of the readers. He later goes on to describe how brutal“the elephant” hurt the Burmese man. He says, “The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back..” This use of imagery paints a picture in the reader's head about how evil and brutal the elephant is. The last use of imagery Orwell embeds in his essay when he says, “The evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.” This imagery is used to show the retaliation of the Burmese people to the British.

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”. All of those depictions related to the “immense” crown that had followed the narrator expecting him to kill the elephant. This can be analyzed from his own words: “I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind”. “And he also realizes that to shoot the elephant would be not only unnecessary but quite immoral. But he is not a free agent; he is part of the impartial system (Ingle,

In document D Gandhi is portrayed salting a lion's tail not trying to kill it, but just trying to tame the lion that represents Great Britain. In document A in Gandhi’s letter he adresses Lord Irwin the governor general and viceroy of India at the time as his dear friend. By treating Great Britain as a friend Gandhi showed the world that the protestors were not the ones causing the problems it was in fact Great Britain. Gandhi had enough followers to overthrow British rule, this is why his tactics worked. There were more indian protestors than there were people of Great Britain to enforce the laws, and India would not be able to continue generally speaking if the people were protesting to all unjust laws.

Political Paragraph British imperialism had a negative effect on the politics of India because of the corrupt justice system, and the utter lack of respect that killed masses of innocent people. In the article Lalvani states that, the British “established the framework for India’s justice system, civil service, loyal army and efficient police force”. The British may have set up a government but the framework, however, did not include Indians. “ Of 960 civil offices...900 are occupied by Englishmen and only 60 by natives” (Doc 2). In no way are 60 voices of a race considered ‘savage’ going to overpower 900 white men, who could easily kill them for taking a stand, or trying to change the unjust laws that are

This quote by Fanon is clearly depicted in Things Fall Apart. The clan becomes infuriated by the church’s presence. However, they do not revolt against the colonizers. They become angered by the church’s actions, especially when the six men from Umuofia were imprisoned by the District Commissioner. Although, the colonizers use violence as a way to instill fear within the Igbo people.

The North was to blame because they became unwilling to help the freedmen. The North was beginning to think that blacks were not up to the challenge of becoming politicians. The people that had fought an entire war to free the slaves were now backing away. They were foolishly believing that the freedmen were lazy, arrogant fat cats. (Richardson, 517) The North knew it was wrong and false but they believed it anyway.