Throughout the period after Orwell shot the elephant and when he wrote his essay upon the…
George Orwell writes Shooting an Elephant with his experiences in Burma; so story is in Burma, Myanmar. Both Orwell uses his own experiences in past and he lives in the significant era of British in history, we see high rise at historical background in the story. Orwell prefers to indirect way to express his emotions using symbols. One of the main symbols is an elephant. The elephant symbolizes British Empire. The reason that Orwell chooses the elephant, the empire is powerful like an elephant. When it dies, Orwell makes narrative sentences about the elephant. These sentences help us the elephant is the British Empire.” One could have imagined him thousands of years old. (5)” “He was dying, very slowly and in great agony, but in some world…
You should always do what your conscience tells you to do. People always try and make decisions based on other people. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” essay Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant and knew it was not right, but did it just because of other people. If he would have trusted his conscience and had not shot the elephant he would never felt shameful.…
George Orwell is well known, even though he died in 1950. He was British and an ex-cop. George Orwell is a very prominent author. He is known for a few of his books, written for a variety of purposes. However, this specific essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, is written to inform of us. He phrases this essay more as a narrative, which makes it not rhetorically effective. George Orwell uses great imagery and his syntax makes it simple for even high schoolers to read through his works.…
Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell is a story how a young Orwell, while stationed in Colonial Burma, became disillusioned with Imperialism. On one occasion he was faced with the dilemma of having to destroy a wild elephant that had gotten loose in the town he was stationed in. Throughout the story the reader will be able to see two alternating voices of Orwell. The first voice is a justification of his actions, while the other voice cites an honest excuse of why he shot the elephant. More than that the story talks about power and authority, pride v/s responsibility, ethical decision making and being morally correct or incorrect.…
Orwell succeeds greatly in telling one of his remarkable experiences in Burma. While working for the British Empire as a police officer in Burma, he comes across a elephant gone mad that in his judgment he shouldn’t shoot because the handler was on his way and there was no need to kill the expensive piece of property anymore. But in the end he felt that he needed to do a service for the mob of people that had congregated. Orwell wrote this essay 10 or so years after the events that took place in the essay. The British Empire at the time of writing was going through major changes and its imperial power was declining. So he was telling his incredible story as a way of informing the British citizens at the time of exposing the injustices and dark side of imperialism that he felt he had to right. The whole world when he was writing this essay was enduring a economic depression and were facing another possible world war. So it was a dark time not only for the British empire but the whole world.…
The thesis of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is, “When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.” This sentence is found in paragraph 7, line 14. This is the thesis of the essay because it reflects on the fact that Orwell feels reluctant at first to shoot the elephant, because he sees how peaceful and harmless it is. But as the crowd behind him pressures him with their laughter and screams, he finally pulls the trigger, with out actually thinking, and he repeatedly shoots the elephant trying to kill it, in mad rampage. This scene reflects back to the part of the thesis, “it is his own freedom he destroys” because Orwell demonstrates losing his freedom to behave intelligently and morally. He doesn’t want to kill…
1)George Orwell has an extremely scornful attitude towards imperialism. He views it as a corrupt form of government. He has a strong disgust for the native people, as they continually harass him on a daily basis. They attempt to trip him on the soccer field, laugh and make fun of him. Orwell dislikes his position in Burma, as he frequently states that he does not like having power and ruling over a foreign people. Many times the masses of people tend to go around what Orwell is attempting to enforce, rather than obey what he decides.…
In 1936, author George Orwell wrote an essay titled “Shooting an Elephant”. In the essay Orwell describes a scene of a British police officer who is stuck between having to shoot an elephant. The story takes place in Burma, India where then, they were under British imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It humiliates the occupied people, reducing them to an inferior status in their own country. Analyzing Orwell’s work, I realize that Orwell feels Imperialism is not good for both the people subject to and the people of the imperial power. The fact that the main character of the story is an officer of the imperial government, but also in opposition to imperialism…
George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" is an essay about a British police officer living in Lower Burma who goes through the trial and error process of making the right decisions while still trying to maintain an image and position of authority. The officer is hated by the Burmese people, which is clearly shown when he would play football. The Burmese were extremely unfair to the officer due to the fact he was part of the Imperialist group which was oppressing Burma. (para. 1) Although the officer is hated he feels "Imperialism, [is] an evil thing" and he "[is] all for the Burmese and against their oppressors, the British," his own kind. (para. 2)…
"Shooting an Elephant," by George Orwell is a first person view on living and working as a European police officer in Moulmein, Lower Burma. There was a bit of tension between the locals and the foreign law enforcement since the British had taken over the country, so Orwell was not thought fondly of. The climax of this essay was when a otherwise tame elephant starts rampaging because is had gone into "must" a term used on page 118 that means in heat. The owner loses track of the animal in the night and the elephant finds its way back into the city, tearing up houses and eating food from the market while the tamer is long gone in pursuit of a shadow. When the elephant kills one of the locals, Orwill gets a gun; not to kill, but to protect.…
In “Shooting an Elephant', George Orwell described the onus of serving with the imperial police in Lower Burma, during a time where the British police were hated by the natives. Orwell expressed his views towards the Burmese, saying “Theoretically—and secretly, of course—I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Though he felt that way, they did not feel the same towards him. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” He hated his job and felt that the sooner he got out, the better. Imperialism was something that he clearly despised, yet he was caught right in the middle of a cycle of oppression. One day, an event occurred that left Orwell battling with a decision between his own moral beliefs, and gaining the approval of the…
Burma was a relatively happy country for most of the nineteenth century. The Burmese fought the British Empire for years to maintain their independence but the superpower didn’t care that their future subjects desired to be free, and finally conquered them in the late 1800’s. England redrew the borders of Burma and made it part of India, even though Burma was a totally separate country with its own cultural and political identity. After years of oppression under a government that ignored their well-being, the Burmese of 1920 were sick of and dying under foreign rule. As a young officer in Moulmein, Burma, George Orwell was “an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped [him on a football field] and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” (216). After enduring bullying at the hands of the Burmese, Orwell’s main purpose as an officer was to appear strong and wise in front of the Burmans. This resulted in Orwell violently murdering an elephant to maintain an air of superiority. In sum, because the British government didn’t care about the Burmese, tensions ran high which led to…
In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the main character had gone threw a big change throughout the story. The changes that he had encountered may have not been intentional, but peer pressure has its way of influencing people to do things they don’t want to do. In this story a tamed elephant turns for the worse and the main character is called into take care of the problem.…
“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is an essay surrounding the difficulties of doing what you are supposed to do versus what others want you to do. For Orwell the problem boiled down to whether he should leave an elephant ,that went on a rampage but was now calm, alone or to shoot it because that was what the locals wanted him to do. Orwell didn't feel like it was necessary to do it but the pressure from the mob made it seem like the only choice he had. So he chose the words of others over his own morals.…
