Preview

Free Will In 'Shooting An Elephant'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1011 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Free Will In 'Shooting An Elephant'
Some people think that free will doesn’t exist and that everyone’s fate is predetermined long before they were born. Free will is making all life decisions simply by choice, having control over everything done in life. Fate is no matter what happens it was meant to happen, and nothing that is done can change what is destined to happen. Just imagining that everything done in one’s life is not decided by that person is completely absurd. Life is all choices to think that it isn’t all by free will makes no sense. People are the masters of their own fate and to say otherwise is completely insane. People have free will and what they do with that decides their destiny.
In the movie Disconnected it showed three different stories, and they all demonstrated
…show more content…
The main character Orwell was a sub-divisional police officer. 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 wanted to see the elephant get killed so they could then take its meat. Orwell had thought to himself “I had no intention of shooting the elephant-I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary” (Orwell 724). But because all these people followed him when he finally found the elephant he had got ready to shoot it. The elephant was no longer going crazy and was calmly eating a bush but Orwell chose from his own decision that I’m going to shoot this animal. He was defiantly pressured to do so but he still made the decision to end the animal’s life because he is the one who pulled the trigger. He knew that there was no need for killing it but he chose to shoot and he said “I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (Orwell …show more content…
They believe that everything in life is predetermined and that they have no choice in what their life leads too. But the belief of free will is so much better than that because life is what you make it. People do stupid things, and it can affect other people’s lives, but they do it anyway. Like in Disconnected what happened to Ben only happened because of what he did. The kids that made the account can be held responsible for the depression but Ben still chose to try to end his life by his choice. In “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell shot that elephant. He said he didn’t want to look like a fool but he still went along with it and shot the gun. And in Trifles the women chose to hide the evidence, and Mrs. Wright chose to kill her husband. Everyone makes their own decisions and that is what leads to the outcome of life. Nobody is born on this earth with their whole life planned out and don’t get to change their life. Everyone has the freedom of making their life choices based off their free

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    * Orwell did shoot the elephant because he felt the pressure that came from thousands of native people behind him when he got the rifle in his hand. Those people expected Orwell to shoot the elephant. Orwell realized that if he could shoot the elephant he will gain some respect from the Burmese people. I think his decision was based on circumstantial motives, social motives and political motives. It was considered as a political motive because he did not want the other German officer to be disrespect by Burmese people and have a bad experience like him. Social motive is one of the most important motives because he wanted gain some respect from the Burmese, who always a fool of him. I think it is not so hard to assign his motives to categories because Orwell describes his feeling very clearly in his essay and it’s easy to understand.…

    • 806 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Orwell, as a police officer felt the pressure of the Barman's Indians who were crowded around him, whether to make the decision of shooting or not the elephant that killed the Indian. In this situation the British man need to take a fast decision shooting or not the…

    • 579 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    including “psychologist and neuroscientists” ( Tierney 1), deny free will and concludes that they believe that as “an excuse to behave as one likes” ( Tierney 2). Moreover, he states that there are believers, who believe that people have control over their actions. Tierney uses life examples…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Founding Brothers, whom the author is Joseph Ellis, had six sections that are used to show how the leaders of the Revolutionary Generation reveal their uncertainty about the ability of the new republic to survive and the two issues that threaten the nation, slavery, and the parties’ differences. The book is focused on Aaron Burr, George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson. The six sections outline the events Ellis sees as main points in the time period after the founding of the U.S. Out of the many events he could’ve chosen to write about, he chose to use a section to explain The Duel,…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the novel A Clockwork Orange, by Anthony Burgess, the main character and narrator Alex undergoes a series of trials as he strives to figure out life. He starts out as a young delinquent who does whatever he pleases whenever he does. There is no one controlling him or enforcing rules upon him. He has complete and udder freedom over his own life, and it affects others in a negative way. His crimes catch up to him one day, and he is charged with murder and thrown in prison. While in prison, Alex must obey rules and regulations set by the prison guards, especially when he undergoes Ludovico’s Technique, a cognitive therapy technique to sensitize Alex to crime and violence. By this therapy technique, Alex is completely deprived of his free will. After he is released from prison, his lack of freedom drives Alex so far as to try to commit suicide. After his near fatal fall Alex’s want, and free will to do violent acts returns and he reverts back to his original ways. By the end of the story he has committed heinous crimes but eventually becomes a good person. Throughout the novel, free will and free choice are the main controversies. Free will can be described as “the doctrine that the conduct of human beings expresses personal choice and is not simply determined by physical or divine force” (“Free will”). Alex goes through periods of having total free will and having no free…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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
  • Better Essays

    The incident of shooting the elephant gave rise to a much-talked issue. It also created a tremendous negative impact on Orwell’s mind. Even the opinion of his fellow Europeans differed – the older people supported his act, while the younger ones condemned it and argued that ‘it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie’. However, deep in his mind Orwell always knew that he had shot the elephant ‘solely to avoid looking a…

    • 880 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cited: Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston:…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yup This is IT

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages

    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.…

    • 516 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Determinism is a controversial topic to free will with multiple theories proving and disproving it. As printed in The Collins Cobuild Learner's Dictionary, determinism is defined as “...the belief that all actions and events result from other actions, events, or situations, so people cannot in fact choose what to do.” Meaning, all life choices are predetermined from the minute we are born, to the minute we die. In contrast, “freewill is an individual taking control and responsibility for his/her actions according to his personal will” (Freewill Verses Determinism). People who believe in Free will, accept the idea that life is not predetermined, and they can independently act however they see fit. Free will and determinism can be further simplified and have multiple differences as well as similarities.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    compare and contrast

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Hanging” are two essays written by a man maned George Orwell that follow similar plots, but have many differences. A police officer is requested to carry out the execution of a run-away elephant in“Shooting an Elephant”. And a prison guard is ordered to carry out the execution of a condemned felon in “A Hanging”. Both end with a death, but are they justified? Or is it murder? In this essay I will discuss the similarities of the two subjects and the deaths they encountered.…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    While the religious community preaches its own view of free will, science sees the matter very differently. The scientific community has two main ideas concerning free will. The first of these ideas is libertarianism, which states that people are free to act on their own accord without the determinism of human nature and from any predeterminism coming from a spiritual entity, including a god. The second and more popular opinion is that of hard determinism. Hard determinism insists that no person is morally responsible for their actions because everything has a cause or causes that determine what it is. Most people believe that they are making the choices they make freely. Science says that for a person to have free choice in a decision, they must have options to choose from.…

    • 440 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shooting an Elephant

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In life, everyone has their own choices to make. Most of the time, the side that one has to choose is not what they want but what they need. Just one wrong decision can even cost a life. Hence many choices are immensely difficult. A significant one could be choosing to follow one own heart or to surrender under the pressure of the society they live in. This is the one that occur in Orwell situation. In his essay, Orwell writes about the one who has the responsibility of managing, regarding their morals and self-worth, are higher than those are being oppressed, and he reveals these costs by examining the outer forces that shape his behavior, the inner forces that lead him to shoot the elephant, and what he and England end up losing when they do not live up to their own principles.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shooting An Elephant

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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.…

    • 753 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Free-Will Vs Determinism

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages

    For one, free will can be attacked on based on morals. In the popular “Milgram Experiment” Gary Larson explains that subjects were tricked into thinking they were hurting another being at the push of a button. (Larson 3) Now one could say that free will is determining if the person dealing the pain was deciding based on their own will, but emotions and character play a huge role in this experiment. Different factors go into the experiment, like depending on the facial reaction of the people due to the shocks. The influences and the way a person was brought up in the world may alter if they would continue or stop sooner or later, all based on one’s background. Determinism can also be argued and be proven wrong due to fatalism. According to Hugh Rice of Stanford University, fatalism is the belief that everything is predetermined, and that change is inevitable. (Rice, 1) Bringing back the rape case, if change is inevitable then how can we send someone to prison over something they have no control over. If a person were to rape a child as an example, fatalism is stating that it was pre determined, and the rapist’s upbringing caused their actions. If the rape was already set in stone and was bound to happen, how can we blame the rapist, do we set them free, or put them in jail for something they were going to do anyway? Free will and determinism are both complex subjects that share both relatable and different aspects. I think people should take responsibility and believe in free will. You don’t have to do something you don’t want to, it’s always up to the individual in the end. Nothing is set in stone to me, until it becomes the past and already happened, through will over false…

    • 1491 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays