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Analyze George Orwell's Shooting an elephant
The writing of george orwell
Analyze George Orwell's Shooting an elephant
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Even though Orwell did commit the crime of shooting an elephant, throughout the story he used ethos, pathos, and figurative language to convince the audience if given the opportunity he would never shoot an elephant again because the elephant represents the innocence of people. First and foremost, Orwell establishes his ethos. As stated in Everything’s an Argument, ethos is described as the author's credibility. He establishes his ethos right from the beginning of the story when he states he works for the British but he despises them.
The speaker George Orwell, who was a member of the British Imperial Police for five years and discovered he did not like many aspects of British Imperialism. The tone is of negative and remorse towards the shooting of the elephant and also negativity towards imperialism. By looking at “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, one can see his strong use of imagery and metaphors, which shows us detailed and vivid descriptions of what imperialism is like, which is important because it helps people understand what imperialism felt like up-close and what the people went through. This personal narrative incorporates a great deal of ethos, since the author writes about his emotions and feelings of going through such an event. This narrative also contains pathos, since Orwell is a writer who has had first-hand experience in being in the place while British Imperialism was going on in Burma.
Well known author and journalist, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant, describes his experiences as a Policeman in Moulmein, Burma during European Imperialism. Orwell’s purpose is to convey the ideal that what is right and what is accepted don’t always align. He adopts a remorseful tone in order to convey to the reader the weight of his actions. By looking at George Orwell’s use of imagery and figurative language, one can see his strongly conflicting opinions on Imperialism. Orwell begins his essay, Shooting an Elephant, by explaining the actions of the Burmese people and by expressing his contempt for imperialism.
As Orwell is looking for the elephant, he finds a dead corpse that has been skinned alive by the elephant. The elephant had crushed the laborers body, so it was smashed in the mud. Orwell thought the elephant on the loose was a hoax, but when he seen that dead man's body he immediately asked for a gun big enough the shoot an elephant. He still couldn't understand the reason for the elephants rampage, but he was going to end all of that soon.
There are numerous themes in this short story such as British imperialism and colonial resentment however the most prominent theme in this story is fear of humiliation and the effect peer- pressure has on an individual. The setting of Burma helps work with this theme as it provides an area for the plot to take place and develop. After marching miles to the destination of the elephant, a crowd had surrounded George Orwell and encourages Orwell to kill the elephant. George Orwell is compelled to kill the once ravaging elephant due to the fact that Orwell wants to avoid looking like a fool. George Orwell is willing to sacrifice his role of doing the right thing and fulfilling the Burmese wishes in order to save himself from
Once he finds the animal, its harmless and eating grass, so he decides to watch it for a while to make sure it stays peaceful. Once the crowd of people find Orwell and the elephant they pressure him to kill it to avenge the village. Over the next few moments, Orwell has a mental battle between what he thinks is right and what public wants him to do. After heavily debating, he chose to kill the elephant to uphold the colonial power he represents. The climax occurs when he pulls the trigger and he heard “the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd” (Orwell paragraph 11).
The elephant’s death left Orwell ashamed and torn; on paper, he had done his duty as an officer but deep down
But as he walked to find the elephant he was debating the whole time. Till he was 25 yards from the elephant Orwell then started to try and convince himself that he had to kill the elephant and show his authority. Orwell was afraid to even get close to the animal and only brought the gun to protect
George Orwell’s experience described in his essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, taught him that after you begin to imperialize, you are sometimes forced to do things against your will to earn humanity. He knew he had no intention to kill the elephant out of cold blood, for the thought of how the elephant’s mahout would feel when he returned from his journey only to find his animal dead. However, the elephant was wild during his must period and was doing outrageous things that was harming the people and the environment of Lower Burma. Orwell knew that he was not well-liked by his fellow Burmans and, therefore could not bear to fail with the face of the crowd glaring at him. The elephant in the story is not only seen as an animal that would be seen
George Orwell Shooting an Elephant Analysis “And then down he came, his belly towards me, with a crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay” (Orwell 788). In George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant, he describes his strife as a British Indian Imperial Police officer In Lower Burma. Nevertheless, throughout the essay Orwell construes his internal clash of hating Imperialism while also being loathed by the Burmans. Furthermore, Orwell is presented with the task of taking care of a big quandary.
In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell describes his experience of killing an elephants when he was an officer in Burma. He explains how the local Burmese hated him and saw him as the authority of the repressive white British. He mentions that he also had the same feeling about the local Burmese. Even though he hated the Thyestean imperialism but he also hated what he called the yellow-faced and evil-spirted Burmese people. One day, he was told that an elephant was destroying the bazaar and killing people.
A significant detail in “Shooting an Elephant” is the last sentence, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” Orwell places this sentence in the essay because it directly supports his purpose of expressing the negative impact on imperialism. Imperialism causes Orwell to fall subject to the pressure of being more powerful than the native people. His motive behind killing the elephant is to “impress the natives”. A level of power is expected from the imperialist officers; if they do not live up to these expectations they are ridiculed by both the oppressors and the natives.
Throughout “Shooting An Elephant” , Orwell’s narrative style brings out internal and external conflicts that are relatable in society today. The narrator faces multiple internal and external conflicts. One external conflict being the Burmese and how they mock him because he is a representative of the British Empire, but he will do what it takes to show them he is not a fool. "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.
Orwell’s story is about a police officer in Burma (George Orwell himself) who is faced with having to do something he does not want to do. Burma is a location in which majority of the people are poor and unlike most farmers, used elephants as manual labor. A control elephant is reported lost at the bazaar, Orwell is then called in to shoot the innocent and powerful animal. George originally does not want to kill the elephant, but goes against his own will and kills the elephant.
George Orwell held a unique perspective on Britain’s involvement in Burma. Through his own experiences in Burma, he developed an inner struggle between following orders and opposing imperialism, that he expressed in the story Shooting an Elephant. Orwell was born under the name Eric Blair in colonial India. As an adult, he joined the Imperial Police stationed in Burma, where he soon discovered a conflict brewing within himself. He was naturally a reflective person, analyzing what he saw to be obvious disparities in the two sides of an Imperialistic relationship.
