George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Summary

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.

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.

“Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.” This quote from Buddhism depicts the idea of the short story, Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell. In the story Orwell committed the crime of shooting an elephant, which legally he had the right to do, but morally felt guilty about killing an innocent animal. According to Everything's an Argument, a correct causal argument needs to have a claim, warrant, and evidence. 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.

Orwell begins his essay, Shooting an Elephant, by explaining the actions of the Burmese people and by expressing his contempt for imperialism. He appeals to the empathy of the audience by stating the actions of the Burmese people: “if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress” (Orwell, 1), “When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” (1). Actions with which would be more expected of the European imperialists rather than the Burmese people themselves. He clearly states his contempt for Imperialism through the following statement on his life and job: "All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred for the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.” (1). He uses the rhetorical device of figurative language to give the reader a strong image of his feeling

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”. 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,

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. This affects the overall consequences of the narrative as it enables the reader to visualize and think more about how the author must have felt while the events of the narrative were unfolding around him. It also enables

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. Personal facts about the speaker’s image establishes authority and impacts the reader to trust the author’s claim about imperialism, considering that even in a position of power he is oppressed. In addition, when reflecting on his past, the speaker claims “I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my

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.

He writes that he “did not in the least want to shoot the elephant.” (Orwell, 2014, p. 233). However, as the narrative continues, Orwell does end up shooting the elephant after feeling “(the natives’) two thousand wills pressing against (him).” (Orwell, 2014, p. 234). Orwell’s actions further demonstrate the power multitudes of people have on an individual. Separately, the Indian people pose no threat; however, together they become capable of dictating the actions of their superiors.

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

He has a rifle and this makes the crowd extremely happy because they believed that he was going to shoot the elephant who had caused chaos and killed one coolie. Even though Orwell felt pressure from the crowd, he felt some sort of resentment towards the elephant when he saw how peaceful it looked in the fields. “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him” (Orwell 299-300). Orwell wanted to show the crowd that he is not scared, even though he would have to kill the elephant who seems very harmless in the field. Orwell did not want to be taken as a joke, he wanted them to respect him. “with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing -- no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at"(Orwell 299). However, Orwell eventually shoots the elephant so that he does not look like a

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."(Orwell). In

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.

Where he says, “But even then I was not thinking particularly of my own skin, only of the watchful yellow faces behind”, was implying the fact that he wanted the town to recognize him. It, no doubt, made him feel like he should be the hero. He had two choices: kill the elephant or let it go, and what did he choose? He chose to kill it all to get praised by the people. He didn’t care how if felt. Have you ever heard the saying, ”What goes around comes around”? I’m not saying that he’ll kill somebody, or eat up their stocks, or make angry elephant noises, no. What I am saying is that karma might eventually come back at him and hit hard. People like Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King Jr., or Malcolm X are heroes, but not the way Orwell sees himself as. They did what was right by how they felt. They didn’t rely on anyone or cared what they thought of them. I’m not implying that Orwell is a bad guy, it’s just actions were bad. The elephant didn’t know any better. Same with other dangerous species, for example tigers. They are wild animals that you can have as pets, but I wouldn’t advise it. They attack humans because they want a challenge and pose them as a threat. That’s why they say you shouldn’t show too much skin, especially around the neck

" Shooting an Elephant " written by George Orwell describes an ugly nature of imperialism. The story is about one European police officer who served in Moulmein, in lower Burma. While he was doing his job he faced many difficulties because of local people's anti- European attitude. This negative attitude overcomplicated his job. He had already realized that he wanted to get rid of his job as soon as possible. As for the job he was doing, he got acquainted with the dirty work of Empire and he was for all the Burmese, but like every Englishman in the East he had to think about himself in order to survive. One day, an incident changed his overall point of view. He was reported that one elephant had lost its control and was ravaging the bazaar. He did not know what he