The act of shooting the elephant is a culmination of the officer’s ignorance of what he knows should be done. Firstly‚ the officer rationally decides that he should not shoot the elephant because “it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery” (Orwell par. 6). He also decides that the elephant “is no more dangerous than a cow” (par. 6). Secondly‚ the officer knew that shooting the elephant was morally wrong. He personified the elephant by describing it as having
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People all over the world have to make choices that can‚ and will‚ change certain areas of their lives. Some will be more important than others. They can be defining moments in many’s lives‚ as it was for the narrator of "Shooting an Elephant." He made a decision in the moment‚ one that can be difficult to analyze. One must take the ethics of the action into consideration‚ as well as his motivation and how the action affected him after. Just figuring out the details of his decision can show what
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An Analysis of Orwell’s "Shooting an Elephant" Erika Moreno-Dalton In "Shooting an Elephant‚" George Orwell finds himself in a difficult situation involving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he can make the final decision. In the end‚ due to Orwell’s decision‚ the elephant lay dying in a pool of blood. Orwell wins the sympathy of readers by expressing the pressure he feels as an Anglo-Indian in Burma‚ struggling with his morals‚ and showing a sense of compassion
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something else is the greatest accomplishment.” In the essays “Salvation” and “Shooting an Elephant” authors Langston Hughes and George Orwell convey the similar message that anything of importance‚ can’t be forced on anyone‚ they rather have to find it for themselves. Orwell was about twenty years old when he went to the village of Burma to work as an officer for the British. The story focuses on a moment in his life involving shooting an elephant. Hughes on the other hand‚ was a young boy who was
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Name Instructor English 15 October 2010 "Death of an Elephant": Symbolism in Orwell As a former business major‚ whenever I read‚ whether fiction or non-fiction‚ I tend to focus too much on the surface meaning—the facts—and I often miss the subtle symbolism and deeper meaning of a piece of literature. As an English major‚ I am attempting to change‚ but I am often skeptical of symbolism‚ fearing that we may be reading too much into an author’s words. For
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What do you expect? Before reading the essay‚ at the first sight of browsing through the title ”Shooting an elephant‚” it stroke me as an issue discussing the protection of extinct animals and what came to my mind is the impression of how human beings ravage the habitat of animals. With the story moving ahead‚ I assumed that the narrator would not yield to the external pressure he had been given. Nevertheless‚ it turned out that he eventually shot the elephant in a brutal and cruel way. What happens
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In stories‚ "Fourth of July" and "Shooting an Elephant"‚ the main characters’ experience a conflict within themselves. Without these conflicts‚ it would be hard for the authors’ to support their narrative point. In "Fourth of July"‚ it seemed as if the main character was never truly informed of the racism in the world‚ almost as if her parents were trying to hide it from her. "I wanted to eat in the dining car because I had read all about them‚ but my mother reminded me for the umpteenth time
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The essay is about an officer who must make a decision whether to shoot an elephant or not. From the very beginning the officer is saying that he is hated by a large number of people. He starts off as an honest man in my opinion. Will he continue being an honest man throughout the story? The officer was a subdivisional police officer of a town and the officer describes himself as an easy target. This officer even admits that he does not like his job. Like the officer‚ I too had a choice to make‚
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George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant’’ first appeared in 1936. The British public already knew Orwell as the socially conscious author of Down and Out in London and Paris (1933)‚ a nonfiction study of poverty‚ homelessness‚ unemployment‚ and subsistence living on poorly-paying menial jobs‚ and Burmese Days (1934)‚ a novel of British colonialism. Shooting an Elephant’’ functions as an addendum to Burmese Days. The story and novel share the same setting‚ and draw on Orwell’s experience as a colonial
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Shooting an Elephant Essay 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
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