Mark Morrison Page 1 Professor Bautista English 110 October 8‚ 2012 “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell In his essay “Shooting an Elephant‚” George Orwell recounts a time in his life when as a British police officer in India‚ he was faced with the moral dilemma of having to shoot an elephant in order to save his pride. In the beginning of the essay‚ Orwell describes it as a time of tension and hostility. For example‚ if a European woman was seen walking alone in a bazaar she
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The story that my evaluation will be based on is Shooting an Elephant written in 1936. The author George Orwell was born in 1903 in India to a British officer raised in England. He attended Eton College‚ which introduced him to England’s middle and upper classes. He was denied a scholarship‚ which led him to become a police officer for the Indian Imperial in 1922. He served in Burma until resigning in 1927 due to the lack of respect for the justice of British Imperialism in Burma and India. He was
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“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
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In the passage‚ Shooting an Elephant a hated police officer killed an elephant. Orwell was asked to come and do something about an elephant ravaging a bazaar. On his way‚ he ran into Various Burman’s that told him what the elephant was doing. He figured that is was not anything to serious‚ the elephant would eventually calm down. The elephant was heated. The night before it had broken out of its chain and escaped. The elephant’s mahout was the only one who can manage it but he was about twelve hours
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“Shooting an Elephant” In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is not liked by the Burmese people because he is the representation of their oppressors‚ the British. He gets his chance to be the hero when an elephant gets loose and causes destruction and the people need him to kill the beast. What would have happened if he didn’t shoot the elephant? Why Orwell feel so awful about killing the elephant? Orwell decides to kill the elephant‚ but does he do it for the right reason? In Orwell’s essay
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In George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” (1936)‚ he reveals that he despises the very idea of imperialism. Orwell shows this by using an extended metaphor throughout the entire essay. The metaphor is shown through the story of him shooting an elephant. He is representing the entire British nation‚ and their imperialistic values. He shows that he does not really want to shoot this elephant if it is not necessary but the Burmese people keep pressuring him to do something and to do it right
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Orwell condemns it and thinks of it as only a façade of power. In ”Shooting an Elephant”‚ he conveys the ironic‚ powerless and evil nature of Imperialism through the experience of himself as a young British officer shooting the elephant against his own will in order to maintain the image of the imperial power in Burma. This is shown specifically through the relationship between the British and Burmese‚ the portrayal of the elephant as well as development of the inner conflicts of the protagonist.
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reading the essay “Shooting an Elephant”‚ it gives away many symbols and a very important life lesson. The essay has many symbols‚ but three stick out like a sore thumb. These include the gun‚ the Burmese people‚ and the elephant. A main symbol that is easily noticed is the gun he uses. A small powerful rifle against a huge elephant. Orwell even noted “an old .44 Winchester and much too small to kill an elephant” (324). The gun isn’t mad to kill a giant beast like this elephant. It was all he had
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Shooting an Elephant Summary: Set during the early 1900’s‚ the narrator recount his experiences as an English police officer stationed in Burma. He often describes that the British presence there were greatly despised and that he himself has been a target multiple times by the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (229) Being there to do the dirty work of the British empire‚ the narrator gets to see what imperialism really
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One day there was a rampaging circus elephant going through the town‚ and Orwell went with his old .44 Winchester so he could go scare it away. During the elephants rampage throughout the town it destroyed a hut‚ killed a cow and raided some fruit stalls. Later on they realized the elephant trampled a man to death and that’s when Orwell went and got an elephant rifle from a friend because he thought it was needed at the moment. Orwell tracked down the elephant and the whole town followed because they
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