The way “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Modest Proposal” starts is one of the differences these essays has. At first, we have “A Modest proposal”, it starts explaining how you may see when you enter to the country that he lives in the poor women who have many children and can’t feed them. Basically, he is showing us or telling us that there were a lot of poverty in those times. Is telling us that there were a lot of people without work and their work was pleading for money. Furthermore, it was a tough time and they needed a solution to have an improved economy and a healthier life.…
Salvation and Shooting of an elephant are both short stories that describe how a person is forced to make a choice between what he believes is right and what society is expecting you to do.…
Orwell hated the British Empire but sympathized with the Burmans because of how they are being treated by them. After killing the elephant Orwell’s thoughts seemed to be like that of the British. He was selfish in decision to kill the elephant. Orwell did not want to kill the elephant at first but there were many opposing forces that made him do it. He was faced with obligation.…
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…
For people who are self-conscious, it is as though they are on the stage to where the audience is scrutinizing their every step and watching them, but it is all in their head. Being one’s own person is what makes people who they are. Individuals differ in other dimensions from their shoe size to their view on who will become the next president. In “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, young Langston shared how he and his peers experience pressure from their church and how differently they all deal with the situation.…
George Orwell was “disgusted by the inhumanity of colonial rule that he witnessed while stationed in Burma” (2835 Orwell). Using his writing to confess the inner conflict of an imperial police officer, he wrote an autobiographical essay titled Shooting an Elephant. He notes that the Burmese civilians were not allowed to own guns during his stay – a testament of British control over Burmese resources. Feeling “stuck between his hatred of the empire he served and his rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make his job impossible” he knew that “the sooner he chucked up the job and got out of it the better” (2844 Orwell). Orwell repressed his emotions because acting out as the only white man would have been foolish. If he betrayed his country, he risked treason. If he sided with the Burmese, he would never fit into their culture. Every white man’s life long struggle in the East was to not be laughed at, so the safest choice for a man like George was to live without action. However, when a sexually aggressive elephant gets loose Orwell is called to take action.…
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.…
George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair. He was born on June 25th 1903 in Bengal, India to a British colonial civil servant. About a year after his birth, Orwell was brought back to England by his mother along with his older sister. He began writing poems at the age of four, ultimately getting one of his poems published in a local newspaper. In 1911 he went to St. Cyprian's, on a partial scholarship, in the coastal town of Eastbourne, where he got his first taste of England's class system. There he began to read the works of Rudyard Kipling and H. G. Wells. He was exceptionally intelligent that he received a scholarship to study at Eton college. After graduating, Orwell joined the India Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years, he resigned his post and returned to England. He wanted to try his luck as a writer. He would spend his time between England and Paris, thus writing his first major work Down and Out in Paris and London. He felt that it would embarrass his family, so he published it under the pseudonym George Orwell. He was not successful and began to take up any job offer just to make ends meet. He later published Burmese Days, which offered a dark look at British colonialism in Burma, then part of the country's Indian empire. Orwell's interest in…
Have you ever felt every choice you make is scrupulously watched by society? This feeling is neither paranoia nor imagination but well justified in view of the fact that cultural expectations influence everyday choices. Society is crowded with guidelines for humans to follow; if people go against the norm they fall under the judgment of others. Having these ideas and concepts of what is normal is often seen as a way of keeping everyone in order. Social norms affect everyday life and cause many people to alter themselves to be accepted.…
The story is set in the 1920’s, when Orwell served as Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police in Burma during a period of strong anti-European sentiment in the country. Though his sympathies and intellect are aligned with those of the Burmese, Orwell’s standing as an Englishman and his position with the authorities only serve to further alienate him from the citizenry and harbor negative public opinion. During an event when a labor elephant breaks free of its handlers and tramples a citizen to death, Orwell is charged with tracking the beast and putting it down. The author describes his conflictions with his task and tells us that upon finding the elephant in a more tranquil state, his resolve in following through with the sentence was even weaker. Here, we find the protagonist standing alone before a scrutinizing audience of thousands of onlookers. Orwell proceeds to shoot the elephant several times before leaving the scene, unable to end its life. Left to the whim of the emotionally charged mob, the animal is killed and stripped nearly to the bone mere hours after the event. In closing, Orwell…
Some might think that there are moments in life that have the ability to change an individual’s view and/or perspective forever. Some individuals may even call this moment pivotal or defining; the one time or circumstance that changed who they were. Life changing moments do not limit themselves to age, however, when it takes place in a child it can alter their way of thinking and perspectives about the world in which they live. It is this very type of mind altering experience that a young boy, Langston in the story “Salvation” and a young girl, Sylvia in the story “The Lesson” have in common. In both stories, the children are a fairly young age and placed in situations that cause them to lose a certain amount of their childhood innocence and…
Orwell wrote at a time when communism seemed likely to spread across the word, which is a similar situation that we see today in some countries. Studying the Orwell’s works is relevant as it parallels with modern times. Orwell’s writing mostly focused on the nature of human in the society; his opinion about the non-democratic world and central authority focused in social and political areas. He wanted to educate people and expose everything he was against. Through the use of symbolism, extended metaphors and intensive imagery, Orwell wrote “naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes” (Orwell, Why I Write) thus turning his harsh words into an art form.…
In Orwell’s experience of the government I believe he learned that even though he may be a police officer, the Burmese people will not treat him with authority unless they are in need of help, as was shown with the elephant accident. The people would treat him terribly until they were in of his help and then they looked to him as a hero for that brief moment.…
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…
Through out his personal essay, Orwell maintains a tone that shows his acrimony toward the subject. Since young age, he discovers the world that revolves around wealth and power and learns to despise it. By the early age of ten or eleven, he came to a conclusion:…