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Shooting An Elephant

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During the early nineteen hundred, George Orwell published his short story ‘Shooting an Elephant’. In the beginning of this story Orwell states his anger and hatred towards the British Imperialism, even though he is a British police officer. He also states his hatred toward the “evil-spirited little beasts,” the Burmese people. As the story goes on, Orwell uses an impeccable way of writing. Swiftly switching the tone between narration and his personal experience and opinions into the story. For example, when he adds in his personal commentary on whether or not to shoot the elephant. Using tone shifts, the peer pressure of the colonization and moral dilemma, Orwell was able to write a story that was both thought-provoking and highly emotional. …show more content…

All 5 of those rounds, he felt the power of the rifle, the excitement of the Burma’s. But when the elephant finally hit the ground, he was still breathing. And Orwell’s moral dilemma approached him. He stood by the elephant, feeling uneasy, regret from shooting this magnificent animal. “It seems dreadful to see the great beast lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him.” (pg. 301). Here, in this statement, he felt the pain, the mistake he had made. He’d shot the great beast, not out of self defense but out of self gain among the village. Out of peer pressure from the Burma’s. Orwell unloaded shot after shot with his small rifle to try and finish him. He could not bare the dilemma he was feeling. He knew he was in the wrong for shooting the elephant and watching it slowly die, hearing him breathe only made it worse. Was his gain of respect amongst the Burma’s worth the agonizing feeling of regret? In the end Orwell walks away. He later finds that he did not gain the respect of all the Burma’s like he’d hoped. The older men agreed with his actions and the younger men did not. Orwell still felt a bit of relief. If it wasn’t for the elephant killing the coolie to justify his actions, then every bit of killing that animal would have been to not look like a

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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.

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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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Orwell had a tone of regret throughout the essay. He did not absolutely have to kill the elephant, but

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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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He had been watching this elephant for a while and it wasn’t currently disrupting the people. Causing him to not want to kill the elephant because technically it wasn’t causing any harm. He also talks about the worth of the elephant by saying “alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds, dead he would only be worth the value of his tusks, five pounds possibly”(Orwell 709). By him stating that observation it shows that if it were up to him he wouldn’t kill the

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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 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.

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Whenever you want during this dangerous occasion Orwell could have created the decision to do as opposed to what the mob of Burmans desired. When he was experienced with the choice of whether or not to capture the elephant he could of created the decision to not to capture it. In reality, that is exactly what he desired to do: “I did not want to kill the elephant.” Actually, his choice to pay attention to the mob and not to his own moral sense was, in itself, an act of freedom. Totally freedom is unbreakable and existing in all choices.

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During Roe v. Wade (1973), the Supreme Court held that a pregnant woman has the fundamental right to privacy in the cases of abortion. This case recognized that the constitutional right to privacy extends a woman’s right to make her own personal medical decisions, including the decision to have an abortion without interference from politicians. Furthermore, it affirms the legality of a woman’s right to have an abortion under the 14th amendment to the constitution. The U.S. Supreme Court Case of Roe vs. Wade has made abortion legal in America. The ruling was that babies are not legal “persons”; from that point on, they have had no rights or protection under Constitution.

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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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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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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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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.

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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).

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