Preview

Shooting The Elephant By George Orwell Analysis

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
143 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Shooting The Elephant By George Orwell Analysis
The first step of Orwell’s decision making was he was indecisive about the elephant since he was just there to see what is happening in town. In the beginning of the essay he talked about imperialism, which means power or authority and it gave him the idea of what imperialism actually mean. Before going to town to see the elephant he took an old .44 Winchester for only self-defense. The gun was too small to kill the elephant. Orwell had to make a decision if he should shoot the elephant since the Burmese population had no weapons and were helpless. On the other hand, Orwell’s stage was similar to McCarthy in the essay “Dog Lab.” McCarthy was indecisive if she should participate in the experiment. The lab was optional for the students, but McCarthy
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    "Shooting and Elephant"-George Orwell Rhetorical Analysis
    • 520 Words
    • 1 Page

    "Shooting and Elephant"-George Orwell Rhetorical Analysis

    Throughout the period after Orwell shot the elephant and when he wrote his essay upon the…

    • 520 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing Mccarthy's Shooting The Elephant And Dog Lab
    • 155 Words
    • 1 Page

    Comparing Mccarthy's Shooting The Elephant And Dog Lab

    People make many decisions in life such as, should I go to college, what college should I attend, what am I majoring in, which people should I hang out with, etc. All of these question is very important that we make every day. In making decisions there is a process that happens on how we make our final decisions. In Orwell’s essay “Shooting the elephant” and McCarthy’s essay “Dog Lab,” they went through the same process on making their decisions. Orwell’s essay was about a police officer that went through a tough time deciding if he should kill the innocent elephant that go out of his cage. McCarthy’s essay was about a medical student that studies a lot and had to decide if she should participate on a class experiment. The process is first…

    • 155 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Summary
    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Summary

    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…

    • 305 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Response To George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'
    • 81 Words
    • 1 Page

    Response To George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'

    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.…

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"
    • 1406 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"

    While reading the essay Shooting an Elephant, first published in 1936 by Eric Blair under the pen name of George Orwell, one gets captivated by the intricate web of rhetoric that Blair weaves throughout the piece.…

    • 1406 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell
    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

    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.…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell
    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page

    Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

    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…

    • 234 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Analysis
    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Analysis

    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…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant
    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

    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)…

    • 573 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant
    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

    "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.…

    • 279 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant
    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages

    George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

    He felt comfort in knowing that because a man had died due to the elephant's rage, that he was legally in the right. However, he stated did not stand for imperialism, and that it was “evil”, yet he displayed the very thing he despised. The Burmese people were treated terribly by the Empire. Orwell even says, “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos—all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt.” By that, it reflects exactly what the elephants living conditions were. And with all of the rage pent up from being confined and living in deplorable conditions, once the elephant was freed, it had every reason to go rogue. Just like the elephant, the people of Lower Burman had a reason to be rebellious and filled with hate. Orwell was in a position to simply wait for the elephant's to mahout come back, as it harmlessly fed itself in the distance. Instead, he gave in to the pressure, let his ego take over, and took the life of an…

    • 691 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Shooting an Elephant
    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shooting an Elephant

    Nevertheless, Orwell was deeply disturbed, as he was in a postion he did not like, and was caught in the middle where he ought to make the decision of killing the mad elephant. He was indirectly force to do this in front thousands who hated him not knowing or care that he did not want to kill the elphant but the imperialism was evil. He seem to have become a hypocrite to himself, not liking treatment of his prisoners or the smelly cages, he was uneducated felt he could do nothing even in the position he held.…

    • 418 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Why Does Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell Have True Courage
    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Why Does Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell Have True Courage

    Courage is being able to drown out the voices of others and stay true to one’s own morals. In the memoir Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell describes his time as a British Colonial police officer in Burma. While he is there he develops hatred for the British Empire and his actions, throughout the memoir are contrary to his beliefs. There are several events that take place in Shooting an Elephant that reveal Orwell’s character flaws. He lacks the ability to make decisions based on his own morals, refuses to utilize his power to act according to his values and fears humiliation, proving that he does not possess genuine courage. True courage is defined by one’s ability to not only possess strong values, but…

    • 1372 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell
    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

    In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is conveying the message that imperialism within a society creates an imbalance in power amongst individuals, where Orwell came to realize that he was not on the top of the heap but a tool to oppress the Burmese people. Orwell employs the use of metaphors to enforce his message. When Orwell states, “conjurer about to perform a trick”. This way of looking at Orwell is contrary to the way that white Europeans would be looked at in ordinarily. In this metaphor the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed are switched so that Orwell becomes the product of British oppression.…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant
    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages

    George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

    The target audience for this summary and response writing exercise over George Orwell 's Shooting An Elephant would be the other individuals and the instructor of this online English Composition course. The majority of my core audience, minus the instructor, should be my fellow college students taking this course. Other than stating that the others who will be reading this piece vary in age, ethnicity, and overall life experience; I would be hard pressed to further describe my target audience. As I do not know enough of the backgrounds of my other classmates.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More