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The Power Of Peer Pressure In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

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The power of peer pressure can evidently raise an error in judgement as it allows you to act in a manner to please others before pleasing yourself. Peer-pressure is an influential demonstration of how someone can neglect the morals of themselves in order to please others around them. This dilemma was evident in George Orwell 's “Shooting an Elephant” as the power of peer pressure forced George Orwell to shoot an elephant he originally didn’t want to shoot. Nevertheless, the power of peer pressure forced him to act out the will of others around him. This is an influential demonstration of how peer pressure can make a person neglect their own morals and consciousness just to please those around them. In George Orwell 's short story titled “Shooting an Elephant” presented an event that changed a countries civilization. George’s life in Burma, and the prejudice placed by the people he oppressed inspired his writing through the uses of setting, style, and theme. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell no specific event influenced this piece rather it was an accumulation of many small events of prejudice and hate by an opposing group of …show more content…

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

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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.

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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.

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George Orwell, a British Writer famous for “Animal Farm”, “Shooting the Elephant”, and “1984”. George Orwell usually focuses his writings on social injustice and intense opposition of totalitarianism. Last semester in Morrison academy, I led a discussion about the book “Shooting an elephant”; focusing on imperialism and oppression of the colonist. In this short story, George Orwell was a police officer in Burma. Furthermore, he hated how the colonists were treated.

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Shooting an elephant, by George Orwell (1936) The internal struggle of George Orwell in regard to his conscience in terms of his stance towards the British Empire and the native Burmese is one of the main characterstics of Shooting an elephant. Orwell himself opposes the British empire, but due to the role he is required to play, as a police officer, his physical appearance indicates that he opposes the native Burmans. His role as a police officer disables him to interact with the Burmans on an equal level; the narrator is required to keep the Burmans in their subordinate place.

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393 Words | 2 Pages

In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell describes his experience of killing an elephants when he was an officer in Burma. He explains how the local Burmese hated him and saw him as the authority of the repressive white British. He mentions that he also had the same feeling about the local Burmese. Even though he hated the Thyestean imperialism but he also hated what he called the yellow-faced and evil-spirted Burmese people. One day, he was told that an elephant was destroying the bazaar and killing people.

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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”.

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With all of his experiences he wrote many good texts that made him famous today. “Shooting an Elephant” was one of the amazing poems George Orwell wrote. In the poem it gave many good messages. The three messages that stood out to me was, peer pressure is tough, stick to your gut feeling, and you have to do things you don't really want to do. First of all, one good message from “Shooting an Elephant” by George

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Literary texts can depict many problems and situations resonating with its readers. The English author George Orwell addresses situations like governmental control, historical periods marked by oppression and social problems like conformism. These topics are depicted in his works such as the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four and the essay “Shooting an Elephant” that is read by many students worldwide. Using these topics as an example, why should secondary students read these works by George Orwell? Firstly, though published 68 years ago, the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four can give students in secondary school a greater understanding of today’s government.

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As a matter of fact, George Orwell did not intend to kill the elephant. Quite the opposite, coming closer to him, Orwell was convinced that there was no danger as such. But, sending for the rifle, that he needed only for self-defense, seemed to give a signal to "natives" that they could expect to see an unprecedented show. So, after seeing a huge crowd of people behind, he already knew for sure that he would have to kill an elephant anyway. “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly”, he says.

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As the hero embarks on his or her journey, the trials and tests they try to overcome do not always go as planned. The journey physically and mentally prepares the hero or heroine for the end of their quest and the holy grail, but somehow along the way the temptation and challenges get in the way of one's consciousness and causing the hero to fall into the expectations of society which causes them to fall into the wasteland. In George Orwell’s “Killing an Elephant” a Burman Policeman discovers his call to adventure to take care of a rogue elephant in the streets of Burman. As a military occupier the majority of the village does not necessarily approve of him. Colonialism, in Orwell’s short writing, acts as a metaphor explaining for his experience with the institution of

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1657 Words | 7 Pages

This story was talking about a British police officer in Lower Burma got the information that there is one elephant was causing damage in the town, and the officer killed the elephant in the end. The symbol of this story I will identify as the ‘Elephant’. The elephant can be represented as a symbol of the people oppressed by the British Imperialism and also the British Empire. (Viswanathan, Apr 19) George Orwell used the elephant as the symbol is because the elephant is a very strong and huge animal on the ground, and at that time, a live elephant can make big money and very valuable and expensive.

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915 Words | 4 Pages

Why was the elephant shot? Why do the British insist on ruining countless Burman lives? The answer, it seems, is that there is no reason, at least, no good reason. By extending the shooting scene, Orwell makes the elephant’s death more meaningful than it’s life and that is what has happened in Burma. The people there are valued more for doing what the British want rather than what they are good at; not being able to do what you’re good at is a kind of death.

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540 Words | 3 Pages

In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, he encounters the pressure influenced by the Burmese and the way it affected his decision. Orwell uses symbols such as the police officer, the yellow faces, and the elephant to represent the evil of English imperialism. The Police officer symbolizes his weakness of authority, the executioner of the elephant, and guilt. Orwell explains “I was hated by large numbers of people.”

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901 Words | 4 Pages

The Burmans slight acts of rebellion by spitting and laughing at the British is represented by the elephant going “must”. Orwell 's self-imposed task of upholding the British Empire’s mask of control can be related to the Empire’s goal of controlling or “taming” Burmese society. Orwell is aware that his reputation reflects that of all the other Europeans. This awareness plays a role in his deciding to shoot the elephant because if he didn’t, the Burman’s would question British authority and think of them as weak (Orwell).

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1118 Words | 5 Pages

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.

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