Shooting an Elephant Summary: Set during the early 1900’s‚ the narrator recount his experiences as an English police officer stationed in Burma. He often describes that the British presence there were greatly despised and that he himself has been a target multiple times by the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (229) Being there to do the dirty work of the British empire‚ the narrator gets to see what imperialism really
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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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Orwell spent the next twenty years as a writer; the essay “Shooting an Elephant‚” set in the Burma of the 1920s and written in 1936‚ is one of his most famous works. In the early twentieth century‚ Burma was still a colony of Britain but anti-imperialism protests and social movements developed very fast‚ causing “great tension between Burmese‚ Indians and English‚ between civilians and police” (Meyers 56). Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” is based on this historical tension. In this essay‚ Orwell
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Trystan Tomco Mr. Stone English 110 12/03/13 Shooting an Elephant Essay George Orwell wrote “Shooting an Elephant” to teach readers about imperialism and its effects on not only those ruled but also those charged with maintaining order above them. Orwell’s narrator is a British colonial official stationed in Burma who is charged with keeping the local populace from rioting. The officer speaks of how he is frightened by the Burmans and even by his own people rulers. Fear is one of the ways
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Essay on ‘Shooting an Elephant’ by George Orwell “And it was at this moment‚ as I stood there with the rifle in my hands‚ that I first grasped the hollowness‚ the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East.“ . This quotation from the short story “Shooting an Elephant” shows the impact of the British Empire on India during the colonial period. The main character‚ who is a British police officer‚ serving in Burma shows a big hatred to both sides. We follow him develop into shooting an Elephant
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30/10/11 ‘Shooting an Elephant’ Rebecca Bonner 2. Choose an essay which puts across a strong personal belief in a clear and convincing manor. George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant‚’ is an essay which takes place in imperial Burma where he is a police officer working on behalf of the British Empire. He is resented by the people who pressures him into shooting an elephant‚ where he describes himself as being a meaningless puppet in front of the Burmese crowd. Throughout this essay he also
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Orwell condemns it and thinks of it as only a façade of power. In ”Shooting an Elephant”‚ he conveys the ironic‚ powerless and evil nature of Imperialism through the experience of himself as a young British officer shooting the elephant against his own will in order to maintain the image of the imperial power in Burma. This is shown specifically through the relationship between the British and Burmese‚ the portrayal of the elephant as well as development of the inner conflicts of the protagonist.
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George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant‚” deals with the evil side of imperialism. The shooting of the elephant in Orwell’s story is the central focus from which Orwell builds his argument through the two dominant characters‚ the elephant and the British officer. The British officer‚ acts as a symbol of the imperial country and the elephant is the victim of imperialism. Together‚ the solider and the elephant turns this into an attack on the evils of imperialism. The shooting of the elephant shows the different
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Reaction to shooting an elephant This time tables are turned for Orwell. In A hanging Orwell was the oppressor but in shooting an elephant I felt that Orwell was oppressed by the Burmese people as he mentions that "In Moulmein‚ in lower Burma‚ I was hated by large numbers of people" and he emphasizes on that fact by adding "As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so" and was also oppressed by the empire as he was forced to do a job that he doesn’t
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Narrative Nonfiction As a father Kevin‚ would tell me stories about his past and what it was like growing up. When his father was trying to teach his big brother how to ride a bike and has the opportunity to play college football. As a dad‚ Kevin taught me a lot of things over the years. For example how to use a pellet-gun mostly in the summertime and shooting at a target‚ fishing at lakes or listens to me talking about anything that was
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