Shooting an Elephant
In ''Shooting an Elephant,'' George Orwell demonstrates the vanity of imperialism and expresses its negative outcomes and how it can influence the country that is being run. By pointing out a minor conflict- shooting an elephant while serving as a police officer in Burma, Orwell uses his language to illustrate the downfalls of the imperialism and brings his audience into the immediacy of his world as colonial police officer.
All through the story, Orwell indirectly expresses his political views and beliefs. He does this by conveying his feelings regarding his position as a police officer and then by making symbolic links between the issue in his story and in his political views. From the opening sentences, George Orwell uses powerful verbs and adjectives. For instance, some of the few strong adjectives he uses are: stinking,evil-spirited,utter,scarred,intolerable. And other verbs are: jeered,huddling,spit,clamped,baited,hooted. These wide choice of vocabulary choices conveys the reasoning behind his topic;because the conflict is stinking and dirty with people being restricted,beaten, and taunted, holding ruthless control over people messes with ethical and moral beliefs causing the destruction of freedom. The first paragraph of ''Shooting an Elephant'' uses truthful yet offensive language to precisely describe his time in Burma such as ''hideous laughter'' as he was describing the Burmese. From the first sentence we can spot irony in his saying '' I was hated by large numbers of people .. that I have been important …''. Human nature tells us to like important people yet the Burmese disliked Orwell for being important. The irony shows how people there despised the British imperialism, further helping him bring out the subject and message of the story.
To reach to the level of his audience Orwell uses colloquial language ''chucked up my job'' to make the readers comprehend the dilemma of imperialism and paint out his hatred towards it. To him, imperialism
All through the story, Orwell indirectly expresses his political views and beliefs. He does this by conveying his feelings regarding his position as a police officer and then by making symbolic links between the issue in his story and in his political views. From the opening sentences, George Orwell uses powerful verbs and adjectives. For instance, some of the few strong adjectives he uses are: stinking,evil-spirited,utter,scarred,intolerable. And other verbs are: jeered,huddling,spit,clamped,baited,hooted. These wide choice of vocabulary choices conveys the reasoning behind his topic;because the conflict is stinking and dirty with people being restricted,beaten, and taunted, holding ruthless control over people messes with ethical and moral beliefs causing the destruction of freedom. The first paragraph of ''Shooting an Elephant'' uses truthful yet offensive language to precisely describe his time in Burma such as ''hideous laughter'' as he was describing the Burmese. From the first sentence we can spot irony in his saying '' I was hated by large numbers of people .. that I have been important …''. Human nature tells us to like important people yet the Burmese disliked Orwell for being important. The irony shows how people there despised the British imperialism, further helping him bring out the subject and message of the story.
To reach to the level of his audience Orwell uses colloquial language ''chucked up my job'' to make the readers comprehend the dilemma of imperialism and paint out his hatred towards it. To him, imperialism