With power comes great responsibility. George Orwell is an extremely talented artist. I say artist not only because of his creative writing skills, but for the way he turns a simple story into a vivid motion picture. It isn't easy to describe a tale in such a way that it makes the reader feel as if they are present to the event; especially without using long, descriptive words that seem to create a cluttered mess of the sentences. Orwell's description of the elephant's death was excruciating and extremely hard to read. It felt entirely too real. I believe he did this to emphasize on the inhumane brutality at hand and the severity of his actions. It puts things in perspective on how the Burmese are being treated by British imperialism. "It was a …show more content…
The elephant that George shot has become the best metaphor I have ever read. Simple enough to get the point across yet, extreme enough to hit home. The elephant symbolizes the imperialism that has taken over this Burmese village. Both the elephant and the villagers have been have
First of two start of, the most rhetorically influential element of this story is the authors background. While George Orwell is a well-known for being an English author and journalist, he is very famous for being a political satirist. In this story, the audiences can see Orwell’s personal opinions on social and political views. In “Shooting an Elephant,” readers detected Orwell’s opinions on imperialism through the narrator’s display of pathos. Throughout the story, the narrator shows feelings of hatred, doubt, fear, anxiety, and distress at the fact that he is in a position of mocked authority.
Orwell conveniences the reader that imperialism has not only a negative impact on those run by imperialist, but also degrades those holding the power of an imperialist. Like other works Orwell has written they too have expressed his opinion on social and political aspects. In “Shooting an Elephant,” readers can recognize his opinions on imperialism through the narrator’s display of pathos. Orwell over and over expresses his hatred, fear, doubt, and distress for authority of imperialist. The narrator states “As for the job [he] was doing, [he] hated it more bitterly than [he] perhaps make clear.”
Rhetorical Analysis: “Shooting an Elephant” Contrary to popular belief, the oppressors of imperialism lack freedom. Imperialists are usually powerful and maintain control over the native people of the land they are taking over. It is expected for someone with great power to have choices and freedoms, however, that is not necessarily the case. Sometimes power can limit or restrict the choices one makes.
In the passages How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O’Brien and Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, there are many similarities and differences between the two passages, but the differences exceed the similarities. While both sections talk about a shooter, human death, and animal death; they differentiate in the shooters motives, pacing, and narration structure. Just as How to Tell a True War Story has the death of Curt Lemon, Shooting an Elephant also has the death of the coolie. In Tim O’Brien’s story, Curt Lemon is killed by a boobytrapped bomb in which O’Brien leads himself to believe is the sunlight. The passage goes on to describe the events leading up to Lemon’s death and how O’Brien believes that Curt Lemon would have thought the sunlight killed him and not the 105-round, “It was not the sunlight.
Well known author and journalist, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant, describes his experiences as a Policeman in Moulmein, Burma during European Imperialism. Orwell’s purpose is to convey the ideal that what is right and what is accepted don’t always align. He adopts a remorseful tone in order to convey to the reader the weight of his actions. By looking at George Orwell’s use of imagery and figurative language, one can see his strongly conflicting opinions on Imperialism. Orwell begins his essay, Shooting an Elephant, by explaining the actions of the Burmese people and by expressing his contempt for 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”.
"I did not in the least want to shoot him." (Orwell). The narrator lets us know the feeling he was going through and obviously did not intend on shooting the elephant. Although, No one ever convinced him to take action and shoot the elephant. He simply shot the elephant for his own personal feelings of not wanting to be rejected and to feel like a hero.
In the beginning of the essay, the elephant manifests an unbending tantrum. The rampage kills a local man and destroys much of the village. Orwell, by using a tumultuous elephant destroying the village, is a reference to imperialism and its disastrous effects. Orwell writes, “He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side… (Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)” to show how imperialism’s devastation was the opposite of the initial extension of Britain 's influence through colonization. You can see in Orwell 's writing the diction he uses such as “crucified” and “devilish” in the essay show that the religious influence of imperialism takes a large toll on the culture of the Burmese people and British officers there.
Understanding Why I Write Different writers have their own opinion of why they write and what motives them to write. English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, George Orwell writes an essay on why he writes. Explaining his four motives. Orwell believes those four motives are sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. Throughout his essay called, Why I Write, Orwell uses different strategies to get to his audience such as, persona, diction, cumulative sentences.
During this period, the world passed through several events that marked its way forever. Formerly, it was a century of industrial improvements, medical advances, scientific discoveries and economic transformation. Despite all of this progress, human kind also met pain, deception, hunger and war. Shooting an elephant is a story that unmasks a cruel reality hidden behind the British glory and successfulness. Immediately, it presents the government inequality and pressure upon people.
To start off with, the Burmese people expect George Orwell to shoot the elephant because it rampaged through the bazaar and accidently killed a man. Later, the elephant calms down, and while Orwell does not want to kill it, he also does not want to appear weak. Orwell sympathizes with the Burmese people, but they hate him because they associate him with violence and oppression. However, they expect Orwell to take vengeance on the elephant by killing it. The situation calls for him to behave with cruelty because that is the only way he can fulfill the expectations of the Burmese people and maintain some sense of credibility in their eyes.
Throughout “Shooting An Elephant” , Orwell’s narrative style brings out internal and external conflicts that are relatable in society today. The narrator faces multiple internal and external conflicts. One external conflict being the Burmese and how they mock him because he is a representative of the British Empire, but he will do what it takes to show them he is not a fool. "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.
There are numerous themes in this short story such as British imperialism and colonial resentment however the most prominent theme in this story is fear of humiliation and the effect peer- pressure has on an individual. The setting of Burma helps work with this theme as it provides an area for the plot to take place and develop. After marching miles to the destination of the elephant, a crowd had surrounded George Orwell and encourages Orwell to kill the elephant. George Orwell is compelled to kill the once ravaging elephant due to the fact that Orwell wants to avoid looking like a fool. George Orwell is willing to sacrifice his role of doing the right thing and fulfilling the Burmese wishes in order to save himself from
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.
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.