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George Orwell Foolishness

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Looking foolish is the bane of many people and a very common fear among many around the world. The main theme of George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant is to do what is right, not what will make you look good. Orwell believes that he was going to look idiotic; so he allowed himself to let a crowd of people persuade him into doing something he knew was wrong, but he was too afraid of not looking sensible. Sometimes looking foolish is worth it, and in the story, you can easily tell the Orwell regrets his decision to shoot the elephant. Throughout the story, Orwell has been setting a very malicious tone for the people that are witnessing him getting red to put down this elephant. He constantly describes them as a “sea of yellow faces” which shows that he does not see them as a crowd of people, but a crowd of lifeless and colored beings (299). He even goes as far as to describe them as “evil-spirited little beasts” (296). He disregards them as humans yet still feel the need to satisfy and impress them. He constantly regrets the decision he made to shoot that …show more content…

He describes such a fast-paced memory in such vivid detail that the memory feels like an experience that lasted more than 15 minutes. When describing the scene he uses graphic words describing “the thick blood” as “red velvet” (301). When he fires the shots and describes the blood “[welling] out of him” he then proceeds to describe the elephants cries as “tortured breathing” and “dreadful (301). Orwell also relates the breathing to “the ticking of a clock” (302). His vivid imagery of the dilemma shows he regrets his decisions; you can tell how he has played the memory over and over again in his head. He did not feel foolish at the time as he had satisfied the crowd, but now he feels even more foolish as he feels remorse for his previous

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As an opponent of political and social injustice, author George Orwell shows his disapproval for political corruption and political injustice through the display of pathos. Likewise, in “Shooting an Elephant,” readers detect George Orwell’s subjective opinions on imperialism through persuasion using pathos. Throughout the essay, the narrator uses expressions and feelings of fear, hatred, anxiety, doubt, and distress at the fact that he is in a position of no authority to inform the audience of his disapproval.

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In the beginning of the essay, the elephant manifests an unbending tantrum. The rampage kills a local man and destroys much of the village. Orwell, by using a tumultuous elephant destroying the village, is a reference to imperialism and its disastrous effects. Orwell writes, “He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side… (Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.)” to show how imperialism’s devastation was the opposite of the initial extension of Britain 's influence through colonization. You can see in Orwell 's writing the diction he uses such as “crucified” and “devilish” in the essay show that the religious influence of imperialism takes a large toll on the culture of the Burmese people and British officers there.

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First of two start of, the most rhetorically influential element of this story is the authors background. While George Orwell is a well-known for being an English author and journalist, he is very famous for being a political satirist. In this story, the audiences can see Orwell’s personal opinions on social and political views. In “Shooting an Elephant,” readers detected Orwell’s opinions on imperialism through the narrator’s display of pathos. Throughout the story, the narrator shows feelings of hatred, doubt, fear, anxiety, and distress at the fact that he is in a position of mocked authority.

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Constitution, abolishing all slavery. While he did not do anything directly correlating to civil rights, it was his work that abolished slavery, and without that African Americans rights would be out of the question. Thus making Abraham Lincoln one of the most impactful and helpful presidents on the road to civil rights. While there are some presidents, like Abraham Lincoln, who did everything in their power to improve civil rights, there are also some who did more hurting than helping.

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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.

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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

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Orwell conveniences the reader that imperialism has not only a negative impact on those run by imperialist, but also degrades those holding the power of an imperialist. Like other works Orwell has written they too have expressed his opinion on social and political aspects. In “Shooting an Elephant,” readers can recognize his opinions on imperialism through the narrator’s display of pathos. Orwell over and over expresses his hatred, fear, doubt, and distress for authority of imperialist. The narrator states “As for the job [he] was doing, [he] hated it more bitterly than [he] perhaps make clear.”

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“Shooting an Elephant” is about the inner conflict that defines Orwell’s experience as a police officer for the British Raj in Burma. It starts with a straightforward discussion of that conflict—what constitutes it and how it manifests—and it proceeds to illustrate it by way of scene and action. immediately begins the short story by first exclaiming his opinions on British Imperialism. Orwell relays his inner conflict towards imperialism by using metaphors and giving examples of his own personal experience with moral dilema. George Orwell had previously described British imperialism by claiming that the values of British are “evil” and regularly expresses his rage for the empire he served.

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“Threats to freedom of speech, writing and action, though often trivial in isolation, are cumulative in their effect and, unless checked, lead to a general disrespect for the rights of the citizen (Orwell).” George Orwell was an outspoken American author, whose most famous work, 1984, showed how a world of surveillance was harmful to not only individual citizens but also society as a whole. If the government was to monitor internet content to a deep extent, such as collecting emails/communications, tracking people’s web history, or restricting what we, the citizens of the US, say, we would move one step closer to the world Orwell imagined in 1984. The United States government has no business in monitoring or restricting internet content, except

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Within Orwell’s short story Shooting an Elephant, an intimate character study is depicted alongside class disparity, metaphorical symbolism, and fundamentally disagreeing with the job at hand. Orwell portrays himself as the furthest thing from a company man, working for the British Empire in Burma as a police officer. The Burmese could not think less of him, and the mentality spreads from monks laughing at him patrolling the street, to bullying in a recreational football match. The great irony here lies in Orwell not trusting the integrity of his superiors, empathizing with the villagers he lives alongside.

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716 Words | 3 Pages

This narrative piece is an effective expository technique that describes the narrator’s thoughts and tone. Orwell uses oxymoron such as “grinning corpse” and paradox phrases such as “the story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes”. Another paradox statement is shown in “I perceived this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys”. Orwell’s decisions were briskly altered as he was deciding on whether to kill the elephant or not. His mind altered from “I ought not to shoot him” to “I had got to do it” and also to “But I did not want to shoot the elephant”.

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It was nothing scarier to me than waking up on Christmas morning and your beautiful Christmas tree and toys are gone. My biggest fear when I was a child was the Grinch. I was seven years old when I watched my first scary Christmas movie “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. I am the baby in my family so the Grinch did not bother my older siblings. I started to have bed dreams about the Grinch and realized he was my worst nightmare.

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“Politics and the English Language” was written by George Orwell discussing the collapse of the English language. Orwell states in his short essay that writers are trying to get more involved in political speech than they do with expression. He explains in his essay that publishers and writers are more worried about sounding intelligent than getting to a point and expressing their opinions. Modern writers are straying away from expressing their point or opinion which Orwell says is blasphemy. Orwell was expressing his opinion that less is more with the English language and simplicity will get you farther with the reader.

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1926 Words | 8 Pages

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.

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Orwell’s vivid description of the elephant’s rampage, “The people said that the elephant had come suddenly

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