Throughout the period after Orwell shot the elephant and when he wrote his essay upon the…
George Orwell writes Shooting an Elephant with his experiences in Burma; so story is in Burma, Myanmar. Both Orwell uses his own experiences in past and he lives in the significant era of British in history, we see high rise at historical background in the story. Orwell prefers to indirect way to express his emotions using symbols. One of the main symbols is an elephant. The elephant symbolizes British Empire. The reason that Orwell chooses the elephant, the empire is powerful like an elephant. When it dies, Orwell makes narrative sentences about the elephant. These sentences help us the elephant is the British Empire.” One could have imagined him thousands of years old. (5)” “He was dying, very slowly and in great agony, but in some world…
You should always do what your conscience tells you to do. People always try and make decisions based on other people. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” essay Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant and knew it was not right, but did it just because of other people. If he would have trusted his conscience and had not shot the elephant he would never felt shameful.…
On the other hand, the story "Shooting an Elephant” was wrote by George Orwell base on his personal experience in Moulmein, in Lower Burma .He served his country, "British Empire as a colonial administrator. The author described the effects on the oppressed Burmese Indians and theirs oppressor British Empire. The internal conflict of British men, his feelings and convictions linked to his pride from of the angry crowd. Shooting an Elephant is more than a personal experience story, is a reflection of the dilemmas of morals standards in real life and the costs that it represent as a human been and his nature as well .…
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.…
The thesis of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is, “When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.” This sentence is found in paragraph 7, line 14. This is the thesis of the essay because it reflects on the fact that Orwell feels reluctant at first to shoot the elephant, because he sees how peaceful and harmless it is. But as the crowd behind him pressures him with their laughter and screams, he finally pulls the trigger, with out actually thinking, and he repeatedly shoots the elephant trying to kill it, in mad rampage. This scene reflects back to the part of the thesis, “it is his own freedom he destroys” because Orwell demonstrates losing his freedom to behave intelligently and morally. He doesn’t want to kill…
In 1936, author George Orwell wrote an essay titled “Shooting an Elephant”. In the essay Orwell describes a scene of a British police officer who is stuck between having to shoot an elephant. The story takes place in Burma, India where then, they were under British imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It humiliates the occupied people, reducing them to an inferior status in their own country. Analyzing Orwell’s work, I realize that Orwell feels Imperialism is not good for both the people subject to and the people of the imperial power. The fact that the main character of the story is an officer of the imperial government, but also in opposition to imperialism…
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…
George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" is an essay about a British police officer living in Lower Burma who goes through the trial and error process of making the right decisions while still trying to maintain an image and position of authority. The officer is hated by the Burmese people, which is clearly shown when he would play football. The Burmese were extremely unfair to the officer due to the fact he was part of the Imperialist group which was oppressing Burma. (para. 1) Although the officer is hated he feels "Imperialism, [is] an evil thing" and he "[is] all for the Burmese and against their oppressors, the British," his own kind. (para. 2)…
Imperialism humiliates native people, make them feel inferior in their own country and most importantly in this story it made the officer act against his belief “ I did not in the least want to shoot him”(Shooting an Elephant, 17). Orwell also shows how imperialism limits freedom not only for native people but the narrator’s freedom as well. He wanted the…
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 based on his own morals, refuses to utilize his power to act according to his values and fears humiliation, proving that he does not possess genuine courage. True courage is defined by one’s ability to not only possess strong values, but…
George Orwell is the author of “Shooting an Elephant”, a short story that uses the small incident of the murder of an elephant to portray the horrors of British Imperialism. Due to the fact that George Orwell writes a short story in the form of an essay, it contains a thesis, which is the argument about the nature of imperialism. The great thing about George Orwell’s essay is that the theme is represented throughout the plot and can be analyzed from any part of the story. This essay will discuss this thesis and how it is represented in Orwell’s short story by analyzing the literary devices used. The most influential literary devices used by George Orwell are metaphors, repetition and alliteration; others include…
In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is conveying the message that imperialism within a society creates an imbalance in power amongst individuals, where Orwell came to realize that he was not on the top of the heap but a tool to oppress the Burmese people. Orwell employs the use of metaphors to enforce his message. When Orwell states, “conjurer about to perform a trick”. This way of looking at Orwell is contrary to the way that white Europeans would be looked at in ordinarily. In this metaphor the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed are switched so that Orwell becomes the product of British oppression.…
Throughout Orwell's literary career, he avidly stood against totalitarian and imperialistic forms of government. His two most famous works (1984 and Animal Farm) both exemplify this point, but at the same time weaken it. These two works were written in protest of those governments, but in a fictional back ground. In Orwell's essay Shooting an Elephant, he uses a personal experience to more clearly emphasize the impact of imperialism at the sociological and psychological level, in conjunction with other literary elements. This symposium of devices help drive the purpose of his paper and ultimately creates a more substantial impact on any reader.…
In the story from “Shooting an Elephant”, the author George Orwell employs irony and simile(s) to develop a nostalgic yet relieved attitude regarding shooting the elephant in order to comment about imperialism.…