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Essay On Slavery In Shooting An Elephant And Middle Passage

877 Words4 Pages

At the beginning of Americas history, we saw the use of slaves and the oppression of a people. This was a huge part of what made America what it is today. Slavery was a terrible thing but that did not stop people from using it or continuing it on. Even today we see the oppression of people through human trafficking which is modern day slavery. We even see this in the poem Middle Passage written by Robert Hayden. The poem depicts the inhuman acts on a people that are being transported as property to be sold in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Hayden shows us the oppression that the Africans received throughout their long voyage. Along with Middle Passage we also are looking into a short story called Shooting An Elephant written by George Orwell. Shooting An Elephants outlines the story of an officer who is deciding whether or not he can go against his superiors or follow the majority, or even his own path. Orwell uses his writing to show how in Shooting An Elephant oppression is something that you see symbolized indirectly through elephant. In both Middle Passage and Shooting An Elephant we are shown how a higher power is able to oppress a people through symbols and strong imagery.

In the poem Middle Passage, Robert Hayden shows the oppression of the African slaves. He uses many visual images and symbols …show more content…

In Middle Passage we see how the African slaves on the boat suffered terrible condition and weren’t given a choice. They did not care for them, only viewed them as property or as an item. In Shooting An Elephant George Orwell uses the relationship between the officer and the elephant to symbolize something greater. The elephant which symbolizes the British and the officer who is representing the British opposition to how they treat the Burmese people. Each of these pieces of literature help show how a higher power oppresses a

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