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
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stories I read‚ two stories in particular caught my attention - "Hangovers" by Jennifer Pashley‚ and "The Elephant Vanishes" by Haruki Murakami. While both stories seem to fall under dark abstract humor‚ the story by Haruki Murakami is my favorite because of the liberal dosage of narration of events through witty language‚ while "Hangovers" story wasn’t as narrative. The story "The Elephant Vanishes" falls between the realm of magical realism‚ and capitalistic realism. Through the humorous narration
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Breaking through the Blindness: A Fight for Freedom The three short stories we read‚ The Elephant in the Village of Blind‚ 20/20‚ and The Cathedral‚ all have many common themes with the movie The Elephant man. What intrigues me the most is the hidden underlining meaning each and every story carries. There are three prominent themes I would like to discuss‚ the figurative and the literal blindness of the characters in the works‚ enlightenment‚ and the freedom the characters experience throughout
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The main theme in “Hills Like White Elephants” is the subject of decision making‚ one that can change your life forever. In this piece‚ there is a conversation between a pregnant woman named Jig‚ and her partner‚ the American. They arrive at a bar near a train junction and order some beers‚ as they wait‚ Jig looks out over the hills and sees the clouds‚ she compares them to white elephants. This topic of conversation seems to arise because there seems to be a tension between the couple‚ which
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taken out of the short story by Ernest Hemingway‚ “Hills Like White Elephants.” The first symbol that is significant and deepens the story‚ is indeed the white elephants. In the beginning‚ the girl states that the hills look like white elephants (9). This comparison of the hills and white elephants can symbolize several things. White elephants are a symbol for something that is unwanted‚ or a burden. This baby‚ like a white elephant is supposed to be a gift‚ that the man see’s as useless‚ something
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Elephant- Slavamir Mirzok ******************************* By P.Baburaj‚ Senior Lecturer‚ Dept. of English‚ Sherubtse college‚ Bhutan Author of: Language and writing‚ DSB Publication Thimphu Communicative English‚ P. K. Books‚ Calicut A perception on Literary Criticism‚ P.K. Books‚ Calicut ******************************* Simple story but with underlying meaning. Story attacks the communist government that existed in Poland in 1958. Satirizes the communist government. Bring out the follies of the
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themselves. George Orwell‚ in “Shooting an Elephant”‚ tells a story of his past when he killed an elephant in order to please the Burmese crowd. At the time‚ Orwell was a white Indian Imperial Police officer who was disliked by the country’s natives due to the fact that he was European. One day‚ he heard of an elephant’s doing of ravaging the town‚ so he ran to the scene with a rifle. When he finally arrived‚ he found himself observing a peacefully feeding elephant while a huge crowd of Burmans gathered
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Hills Like White Elephants The short story “Hills Like White Elephants” was written by Ernest Hemingway. The author seems to be a minimalist where he does not provide explanation about the very issue why the couple is unhappy and annoyed with each other. To have a more deeper understanding on the literature‚ I have looked up a translated version of it and according to a Japanese translation of the very story‚ it said that the problem was about her pregnancy and that the man wants her to have an
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In “An Elephant Crackup?”‚ Charles Siebert partly attributes the belligerence of the recent generations of elephants‚ the animals considered to be among the most intelligently advanced‚ to the lack of a matriarch‚ a powerful female figure. He takes an example of the case of the last elephant survivors at Queen Elizabeth National Park‚ where the elderly female elephant was the one who “gathered the survivors together from their various hideouts”‚ “led them back out as one group”‚ and “held the group
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the situation is understandable‚ due to already having previous knowledge of the problem. In the story elephant crackup? The author‚ Charles Siebert‚ explains the similarity between an elephant and a human. He expresses that an elephant is practically a bigger version of a human. Their brain and emotional state is quite similar to that of a human. On page 355 it was stated that “When an elephant dies‚ its family members engage in intense mourning and burial rituals‚ conducting week long vigils over
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