One of the most famous quotes in history is “Knowledge is Power” an expression that means the more knowledge you gain the more powerful you are as an individual. In the short story “The Birthmark”, by Nathaniel Hawthorne and the two poems “English B”, by Langston Hughes and “Crazy Courage”, by Sherman Alexie, the authors describes individual knowledge and power through the same idea, but through different methods.…
Hughes, hired a team of designers, craftsmen, engineers, and piolets who worked with him on “Hell’s Angles.” At the peak of the depression, these men were happy just to have a job, let alone an interesting one that allowed them to work for Hughes. Together the team help him build his plane “Hughes H-1 Racer” also known as “The Silver Bullet.” On September 13, 1935 Hughes set the world’s record for flying land planes, at 352 mile per hour.…
George Orwell uses the example of Mohandas Gandhi to attempt to make an argument on why human beings should avoid sainthood and just accept “imperfection”, because when it comes down to it, every human being is imperfect. Orwell develops his own position on this theory through an open minded tone; this is a very smart move on his part because this draws the reader in and makes them want to consider what he has to say because he is isn’t completely denying Gandhi’s point of view all the supporters of Gandhi are willing to listen to him.…
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 .…
People make many decisions in life such as, should I go to college, what college should I attend, what am I majoring in, which people should I hang out with, etc. All of these question is very important that we make every day. In making decisions there is a process that happens on how we make our final decisions. In Orwell’s essay “Shooting the elephant” and McCarthy’s essay “Dog Lab,” they went through the same process on making their decisions. Orwell’s essay was about a police officer that went through a tough time deciding if he should kill the innocent elephant that go out of his cage. McCarthy’s essay was about a medical student that studies a lot and had to decide if she should participate on a class experiment. The process is first…
While reading the essay Shooting an Elephant, first published in 1936 by Eric Blair under the pen name of George Orwell, one gets captivated by the intricate web of rhetoric that Blair weaves throughout the piece.…
Orwell succeeds greatly in telling one of his remarkable experiences in Burma. While working for the British Empire as a police officer in Burma, he comes across a elephant gone mad that in his judgment he shouldn’t shoot because the handler was on his way and there was no need to kill the expensive piece of property anymore. But in the end he felt that he needed to do a service for the mob of people that had congregated. Orwell wrote this essay 10 or so years after the events that took place in the essay. The British Empire at the time of writing was going through major changes and its imperial power was declining. So he was telling his incredible story as a way of informing the British citizens at the time of exposing the injustices and dark side of imperialism that he felt he had to right. The whole world when he was writing this essay was enduring a economic depression and were facing another possible world war. So it was a dark time not only for the British empire but the whole world.…
In Salvation, the author remembers his childhood, when he was compelled to deceive his aunt and her church congregation durins his revival ceremony. In the second story, Shooting of an elephant, a British police officer, who is working in Burma, is forced to kill a broken loose elephant in order not to be seen weak by a crowd of two thousand men that was following him.…
Both essays have strong themes which are meant to appeal to the ‘white moderate’ as the authors spoke about the oppression, injustice and humiliation they experienced and observed in their everyday lives. Orwell wrote “Shooting an Elephant” based on his own experiences as a police officer in Burma under the reign of British India. Dr. King wrote his essay from a Birmingham Alabama jail cell in response to a statement by eight fellow clergymen after he was charged for ‘parading without a permit’ (King). Perhaps what makes their approach to injustices interesting is that neither of the authors were native to the area where the oppression was occurring, yet both felt that it was in their best interest to…
Cited: Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant.” 50 Essays: A Portable Anthology. Ed. Samuel Cohen. Boston:…
“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell and published in 1936 (Orwell 66). Orwell was born June 25, 1903, as Eric Arthur Blair and passed away January 21, 1950, in India (“George Orwell Biography”). Orwell was known for his journals, novels, and essays published about his own political views (“George Orwell Biography”). Orwell traveled to Burma after not doing good enough in school to earn a scholarship and decided to join the imperial police (Orwell 66). While on duty one day, Orwell received a call that a rampaging elephant was on the loose that had killed a man and destroyed a hut (Orwell 67). Once Orwell found the elephant calm in a field he was faced with a decision of whether to kill the elephant or let it be (Orwell 69). Orwell killed the elephant for the safety of himself and out of pressure from the Burmese standing behind him (Orwell 70). While Orwell contemplated shooting the elephant he knew out of the town he was the only one able to have a weapon to kill the elephant (Orwell 67). The Burmese weren’t allowed to have weapons because the British Empire outlawed them to prevent the Burmese from revolting. The British Empire didn’t want the Burmese to over power them and revolt because they wanted to maintain power imperialism. The British Empire needed to keep the Burmese under their control because they needed the resources from the land. The Burmese were helpless against the rampaging elephant because the British Empire needed to maintain dominance over the Burmese.…
I class, we read a short story by George Orwell called Shooting an Elephant. It was a story about courage, judgment, and the pressure of peers. I personally did not like this story. I found it boring, pointless, and just another "hasn't -this -happened -to -you" story about nothing. However, it was very well written, and if I had to critically respond to this story, I would praise the author on a number of things.…
1. Compare and contrast the conflicts faced by Orwell in “Shooting an Elephant” to those faced by Gideon in “No…
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.…
Orwell’s calm and detailed description seems to match the dignity and attitude that the dying elephant withhold as he was fighting against its pain to stand up. Orwell observes the scene in a fashion that conveys to the reader that he is accepting this inevitable tragedy. He could be trying to detach himself from the emotional burden with a nonchalant attitude, merely observing an ordinary scene as a writer, narrator.…