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Critical note on shooting an Elephant
Summary of shooting an elephant by george orwell
Summary of shooting an elephant by george orwell
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Pg 269 The feeling i get from George Orwell’s shooting an elephant is that when he started out working as a civil servant for the British Raj that he didn't hate the Burmese. It feels like when he first started out, he got into it with good intentions and that this job wore him down. He has very strong thoughts on the empire and his distaste for it but then he turns around and has an uncontrollable rage for the Burmese.
In “Shooting an Elephant”, which use the first person as narration, the author tries to express the detestation to imperialism and the sympathy to Burmese people at the beginning. “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (Cleghorn 92). The author
In his essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell uses diction effectively to convey an ambivalent tone that displays his complex attitudes toward the Natives. Orwell uses “evil-spirited” (285), “beasts” (285), and “crucified” (287) to describe the Burmese, and the word choice demonstrates the variety of connotations against the Natives. George Orwell states that he is “all for the Burmese and still against their oppressors, the British” (285), however, he characterizes the Burmese by using animalistic words which dehumanize them. Throughout the essay, George Orwell chooses his word choice to demonstrate a negative and positive attitude toward the Natives.
Also letting his audience know that he was influenced by the people to shoot this elephant and immediately regretted it. Therefore, the narrator fell under peer pressure by the Burma people by shooting the elephant. With that being said he should've stuck to his gut and his instinct to not kill the poor animal instead of trying to win over the Burma people and look like a hero. All in all he was trying to do the right thing and help the people, instead he killed an elephant during must in cold blood to feel
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.
The short memoir of “Shooting the Elephant” tells the story of George Orwell’s experience as a british policeman in imperialized Burma. His experience is made up of anger, hate and resentment of conditions he feels is out of his control. Orwell makes many revelations in this story, one of them being, “when the white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys.” Orwell also claims, “He wears a mask; and his face grows to fit it.” These statements possess much validity and can be supported in multiple ways.
In George Orwell 's short story titled “Shooting an Elephant” presented an event that changed a countries civilization. George’s life in Burma, and the prejudice placed by the people he oppressed inspired his writing through the uses of setting, style, and theme. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell no specific event influenced this piece rather it was an accumulation of many small events of prejudice and hate by an opposing group of
The Burmese were consumed with hatred for the British Empire and anything that represented its tyrannical rule. Resentment was like second nature for the Burmese people. Any person representing the authority of British government gained zero-respect from the Burmese. While working as a British police officer “in Moulmein, in Lower Burma”, George Orwell was no exception to this rule. Orwell dealt with anti-European hatred by the Burmese, his own hatred for the British rule of Burma, and ultimately succumbed to peer pressure and shot an elephant.
There was a strong “anti-European feeling” that “was very bitter” (Orwell, 1936). This disdain for all foreign men led the Burmese to harass and act cruelly with any British police officer they encountered. However, it is worthy to mention that these people who acted such way never “had the guts to raise a riot” (Orwell, 1936). Nonetheless, the main character of the story, whose name is never mentioned, also holds a disdain for his own people. This character even goes as far as saying that “secretly -- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors” (Orwell, 1936).
The word disaster is one of the most commonly used words in society and if something is described as a disaster then it is usually because something extremely bad or unacceptable has occurred. It can reflect a variety of individual disasters that can range from geological, such as an earthquake or tsunami, or it can be purely manmade such as a biological or chemical disaster. There is not a single definition of the word Disaster with the United Nations defining it as being a serious disruption to the functioning of a community or society (WCPT, 2016). However, others define it as a sudden accident or a natural catastrophe that causes immense damage or loss of life (Wright, 2013). The purpose of this assignment it to critically analyse a particular
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.
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.
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.
In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, he encounters the pressure influenced by the Burmese and the way it affected his decision. Orwell uses symbols such as the police officer, the yellow faces, and the elephant to represent the evil of English imperialism. The Police officer symbolizes his weakness of authority, the executioner of the elephant, and guilt. Orwell explains “I was hated by large numbers of people.”
The Burmans slight acts of rebellion by spitting and laughing at the British is represented by the elephant going “must”. Orwell 's self-imposed task of upholding the British Empire’s mask of control can be related to the Empire’s goal of controlling or “taming” Burmese society. Orwell is aware that his reputation reflects that of all the other Europeans. This awareness plays a role in his deciding to shoot the elephant because if he didn’t, the Burman’s would question British authority and think of them as weak (Orwell).
