Lessons Learned
Jhesson Ynoa
Eng11 – 1857
May 10, 2010
In the essays that we have read this semester, the authors were effective in helping their readers to learn something from the authors various subject matters, which could be used in the readers’ own lives. I have chosen four essays that I have read this term from which I have learned from. The four essays I decided on are: “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” by Deborah Tannen, “What Really Scares Us” by David Ropeik, and “Delusions of Grandeur” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell writes of his experience in British ruled India in the early Twentieth Century. At the time, he was a young, inexperienced soldier stationed there to help protect the Queen’s interests. While he was there, he had to do something that had made some ethical conflicts within him. Orwell had to kill an elephant that had run rampant in lust throughout a village. In its rampage the elephant destroyed a truck, a hut, and killed a villager. The villagers were obviously upset about the situation and he was called upon to restore the order before anything or anyone was hurt. Throughout the ordeal, he decided that it was best to kill the elephant. His reasons for doing so, however, were not as clear-cut. He said his ultimate decision was to not look bad in front of the villagers that gave him a degree of shame. Orwell’s decision is to keep a measure of order and respect within the community. The British presence there has to be kept where respect and discipline are always maintained. If not, the anarchy that would eventually ensue would make laws and codes harder to enforce. “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” With such vast odds against the troops there, if he showed the slightest weakness, the villagers would pounce upon him; everything would descend into chaos. At that precise moment,
Eng11 – 1857
May 10, 2010
In the essays that we have read this semester, the authors were effective in helping their readers to learn something from the authors various subject matters, which could be used in the readers’ own lives. I have chosen four essays that I have read this term from which I have learned from. The four essays I decided on are: “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” by Deborah Tannen, “What Really Scares Us” by David Ropeik, and “Delusions of Grandeur” by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell writes of his experience in British ruled India in the early Twentieth Century. At the time, he was a young, inexperienced soldier stationed there to help protect the Queen’s interests. While he was there, he had to do something that had made some ethical conflicts within him. Orwell had to kill an elephant that had run rampant in lust throughout a village. In its rampage the elephant destroyed a truck, a hut, and killed a villager. The villagers were obviously upset about the situation and he was called upon to restore the order before anything or anyone was hurt. Throughout the ordeal, he decided that it was best to kill the elephant. His reasons for doing so, however, were not as clear-cut. He said his ultimate decision was to not look bad in front of the villagers that gave him a degree of shame. Orwell’s decision is to keep a measure of order and respect within the community. The British presence there has to be kept where respect and discipline are always maintained. If not, the anarchy that would eventually ensue would make laws and codes harder to enforce. “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” With such vast odds against the troops there, if he showed the slightest weakness, the villagers would pounce upon him; everything would descend into chaos. At that precise moment,
Cited: New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 66-73. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 454-459. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 533-535. New York, Pearson Longman, 2007: Pages 247-249