An Elephant-Sized Dilemma Everyone‚ of all ages and time periods‚ faces a moral dilemma. This may be about a smaller problem or matters of life and death that have a far more wide-ranging impact‚ such as imperialism. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant‚” an unnamed narrator‚ despite his initial reluctance‚ succumbs to collective pressures to shoot a marauding elephant in Lower Burma. Orwell comments on the dangers of collective pressure and the horrors of imperialism in order to explore the
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Shooting an Elephant Essay 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
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Name Instructor English 15 October 2010 "Death of an Elephant": Symbolism in Orwell As a former business major‚ whenever I read‚ whether fiction or non-fiction‚ I tend to focus too much on the surface meaning—the facts—and I often miss the subtle symbolism and deeper meaning of a piece of literature. As an English major‚ I am attempting to change‚ but I am often skeptical of symbolism‚ fearing that we may be reading too much into an author’s words. For
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George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” 1. On page 517 of The Norton Reader‚ Shorter Edition‚ the first question asks‚ “Why did Orwell shoot the elephant? Account for the motives that led him to shoot. Then categorize them as personal motives‚ circumstantial motives‚ social motives‚ or political motives. Is it easy to assign his motives to categories? Why or why not * Orwell did shoot the elephant because he felt the pressure that came from thousands of native people behind him when he
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George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant’’ first appeared in 1936. The British public already knew Orwell as the socially conscious author of Down and Out in London and Paris (1933)‚ a nonfiction study of poverty‚ homelessness‚ unemployment‚ and subsistence living on poorly-paying menial jobs‚ and Burmese Days (1934)‚ a novel of British colonialism. Shooting an Elephant’’ functions as an addendum to Burmese Days. The story and novel share the same setting‚ and draw on Orwell’s experience as a colonial
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the transitivity system is employed to analyze George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” in attempt to uncover the underlining imperialistic theme that occurs throughout the text‚ with relation towards the positionality of the narrator. In taking a linguistic approach‚ the paper intends to use stylistic analysis to substantiate literary interpretation. Building upon that plane‚ there will be illumination upon the actuality of an elephant with the symbolistic representation of imperialism as the driving
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shoot an elephant or not. From the very beginning the officer is saying that he is hated by a large number of people. He starts off as an honest man in my opinion. Will he continue being an honest man throughout the story? The officer was a subdivisional police officer of a town and the officer describes himself as an easy target. This officer even admits that he does not like his job. Like the officer‚ I too had a choice to make‚ whether to shoot an elephant or not. I shot the elephant just as the
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The act of shooting the elephant is a culmination of the officer’s ignorance of what he knows should be done. Firstly‚ the officer rationally decides that he should not shoot the elephant because “it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery” (Orwell par. 6). He also decides that the elephant “is no more dangerous than a cow” (par. 6). Secondly‚ the officer knew that shooting the elephant was morally wrong. He personified the elephant by describing it as having
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Shooting an Elephant: Imperialism When the word“dictator” comes to mind‚ humans are dolorous and empathetic. A great proof of this fact was observed during the early parts of the 20th century when oppression and iron fisted rule was established as a social normalcy in much of the world. The oppressive days of totalitarianism have passed and were marked by the death of the infamous and grandiose era of imperialism. Nonetheless‚ it left a bad imprint upon the countries and people that were involved
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The character that I identify with the most is Orwell in “Shooting an Elephant” because of his struggle to do what is morally right when society wants him to be or do something different. I think I sometimes struggle to do what is morally right when an entire world pushes me to conform. For example‚ what if I know a friend has cheated on a test but I cannot say anything to the teacher because after all he or she is my friend. Or‚ when a coworker gets reprimanded by our boss for something I did and
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