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Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

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Advaitha Nair 10KBOU AP English Shooting an Elephant: Rhetorical Analysis Essay Draft English novelist George Orwell’s personal narrative “Shooting an Elephant” was written in 1936, during the British Imperialism of Burma. This personal narrative contains the subject of imperialism and of what the both the British and the Burmese went through during this period of time. The occasion is the British Imperialism of Burma with the setting being in Burma (because Orwell mentions it) and a particular event where a British official (the author) is forced to kill the elephant in front of the Burmese. The audience is for people who want to know what is like for the people experiencing imperialism first-hand. The purpose is to inform people about what imperialism is like and what the …show more content…

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. This affects the overall consequences of the narrative as it enables the reader to visualize and think more about how the author must have felt while the events of the narrative were unfolding around him. It also enables

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In the passages How to Tell a True War Story by Tim O’Brien and Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, there are many similarities and differences between the two passages, but the differences exceed the similarities. While both sections talk about a shooter, human death, and animal death; they differentiate in the shooters motives, pacing, and narration structure. Just as How to Tell a True War Story has the death of Curt Lemon, Shooting an Elephant also has the death of the coolie. In Tim O’Brien’s story, Curt Lemon is killed by a boobytrapped bomb in which O’Brien leads himself to believe is the sunlight. The passage goes on to describe the events leading up to Lemon’s death and how O’Brien believes that Curt Lemon would have thought the sunlight killed him and not the 105-round, “It was not the sunlight.

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Rhetorical Analysis: “Shooting an Elephant” Contrary to popular belief, the oppressors of imperialism lack freedom. Imperialists are usually powerful and maintain control over the native people of the land they are taking over. It is expected for someone with great power to have choices and freedoms, however, that is not necessarily the case. Sometimes power can limit or restrict the choices one makes.

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At a young age, parents tend to teach their child right from wrong. They teach you this to become responsible, so when your an adult you do not have to rely on them while making decisions. In George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant, we notice he wanted to do the right thing by not shooting the elephant but gave into peer pressure to fit in. The narrator felt the need he had to shoot the elephant because the people of Burma were frightened and he wanted to be their hero. Peer pressure can lead people to do bad things for what they think are good reasons but are actually not.

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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.

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The purpose of “Shooting an Elephant” was to show that sometimes people do things they know aren’t the right decision just to impress everyone else. The officer felt that,“It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him” (Orwell 4). As he shot the elephant he

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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

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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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George Orwell, is a very well know writer in the twentieth century, he began his writing career in 1934. Four years prior he had served five years as an imperial police officer, from these experiences he wrote on of his most famous essays, Shooting an Elephant. This essay is about him having to choose between shooting a “heated” elephant or leaving it be. He has the eyes of the Burma people watching him, and the crowd continues to grow. In the end he does end up shooting the elephant, but why?

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In Between Desires and Expectations In the narrative, “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell writes about his memory of shooting an elephant, when he was a police officer in Moulmein, Lower Burma and shows the nature of imperialism. Firstly, he was not going to kill the elephant, because this “monster” elephant, who was destroying the city, was completely peaceful and calm, when he found it. However, the locals were expecting him to kill the elephant and put him under the pressure. He had inner conflict between his will to win the sympathy of Burmese and his sorrow of hiding his true intentions. He shoots the elephant at the end of his inner conflict in order not to look like a fool to the locals, to show his feelings as an Anglo-Indian in Burma and as a European to be the hero of the locals.

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In the story “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell talks about his point of view of imperialism.

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George Orwell, the author of “Shooting an Elephant”, uses symbols such as the elephant, the gun, and the crowd to expose the conflict between the law and one’s moral conscience. The elephant shows to conflict between the law and one’s moral conscience because the elephant possesses a lot of power, control, and strength. In this essay, the elephant destroyed homes and other items in their town. This is just a small example of how much power the elephant has.

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