George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” “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
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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
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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. Surely‚ the reason this essay keeps the attention of the reader so well is because Blair writes with an unmistakably strong exigency. It is this need of his to tell the world the truth about imperialism that enables him to write something so captivating. Blair found himself in Moulmein
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1. Orwell shoots the elephant because the two thousand native people standing behind him expect him to. They want revenge for the man it killed‚ the meat the carcass will provide‚ and the entertainment of watching the shooting. “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it” he writes. There is a suggestion that if he decided not to shoot the elephant‚ both he and the empire would suffer a loss of prestige‚ but the main concern in Orwell’s mind is the “long struggle not to be laughed at”. He
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"Shooting an Elephant‚" by George Orwell is a first person view on living and working as a European police officer in Moulmein‚ Lower Burma. There was a bit of tension between the locals and the foreign law enforcement since the British had taken over the country‚ so Orwell was not thought fondly of. The climax of this essay was when a otherwise tame elephant starts rampaging because is had gone into "must" a term used on page 118 that means in heat. The owner loses track of the animal in the
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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
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Technique Analysis of ‘Shooting an elephant’ Written by George Orwell Essay by Arthur Diennet In 1936‚ George Orwell published his short story ‘Shooting an elephant’ in an English magazine. Since then‚ it has been republished dozens of times and holds a place as a definitive anti-colonial piece of literature‚ in an era where the British Empire was at its peak and covered almost 1/3 of the Earth’s surface. George Orwell believed that “…imperialism was an evil thing...” and uses much themes
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Shooting An Elephant Questions 1)George Orwell has an extremely scornful attitude towards imperialism. He views it as a corrupt form of government. He has a strong disgust for the native people‚ as they continually harass him on a daily basis. They attempt to trip him on the soccer field‚ laugh and make fun of him. Orwell dislikes his position in Burma‚ as he frequently states that he does not like having power and ruling over a foreign people. Many times the masses of people tend to go around what
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_SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT BY GEORGE ORWELL:_ _Commentary_ Political‚ social & ethical issues raised in Orwell’s essay "Shooting an Elephant" create a controversial storyline in which the events metaphorically symbolize the colonial imperialism of the time. Set in Burma‚ 1936‚ the context is based around the anti-European attitudes existent post the Anglo-Burmese Wars. Orwell’s positions‚ as police officer for the despotic British governments‚ required him to hold authority over the Burmese‚ consequently
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In Shooting an Elephant‚ George Orwell explores the ideology of imperialism. Throughout the essay it is established that Orwell is not in favor of imperialism. By using an officer from the British empire as the narrator‚ Orwell uses the officer to show the evils of imperialism on not only the Burmese but also on the enforcers. Orwell develops his argument against British imperialism through his use of rhetorical strategies such as symbolism‚ similes/metaphors‚ and imagery. One rhetorical strategy
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