Emily Omakpokpose McCrary AP Lang – 4 3 December 2017 Create Your Own What influences a person’s identity? Does one get an identity when they are able to differentiate right from wrong, or are they born with it? There is not one thing that gives a person their identity, there are however, many different factors that contribute to one’s identity. From Contemplation in a World of Action written by Thomas Merton, Merton advocates identity by stating that “A person does not simply “receive” his or her identity. Identity is much more than the name or features one is born with. True identity is something people must create for themselves by making choices that are significant and that require a courageous commitment in the face of challenges. Identity means having ideas and values that one lives by” (Merton). Concurring with Merton a person is not given their identity at birth or while developing as an embryo, rather it is something that you create for yourselves over the course of life through decisions and actions made by the individual. Although identity is something that one may not be fully aware of or discover until last breaths. Identity can Throughout the story, Orwell described how he was heavily pressured by the Burmese into shooting an elephant, stating that he became "... an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind" (Capote 583). Through Orwell's diction it became known that Orwell was hated by the majority of his residing village since he upheld the position of a sub divisional police officer for the British Raj in colonial Burma. Orwell was driven to killing the animal out of desperation of the public dropping all forms of hatred towards him. Although killing the elephant was against his will, Orwell went through with the deed earning a new profound identity known as the elephant
Initially, in the text Elephant, by Orwell, the speaker, who is actually a younger Orwell back when he was a policeman for England stationed in Burma, is faced with the decision to shoot an elephant that is running around like crazy, destroying everything because it is in must, or in heat. Although the elephant is destroying things, it is also a very important animal to the people of Burma, because they use it for farming, and other things. The thing that really messes Orwell up is the fact that there is peer pressure mixed into his feelings. The other police officers believe that killing the elephant is the ri...
A police officer in the British Raj, the supposedly 'unbreakable'; ruling force, was afraid. With his gun aimed at a elephant's head, he was faced with the decision to pull the trigger. That officer was George Orwell, and he writes about his experience in his short story, 'Shooting an Elephant';. To save face, he shrugged it off as his desire to 'avoid looking the fool'; (George Orwell, 283). In truth, the atmosphere of fear and pressure overwhelmed him. His inner struggle over the guilt of being involved in the subjugation of a people added to this strain, and he made a decision he would later regret enough to write this story.
In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is the officer of the town in the time period of Imperialism. In the beginning of the story Orwell shows the readers that despite him being an officer, he didn’t have much credibility. Orwell states, “When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” (p. 229.) Orwell also describes further the hate the people had for him in the town and mentions that the people continuously treated him in a disrespectful manner. Throughout the story it is reported to Orwell
(Orwell 4). This shows how Orwell’s character was reluctant at first, but with the growing mob behind him he had to shoot the elephant to keep his standing with the Burmese people and being marked a coward. After the ordeal of shooting the elephant, he has some reflections on his actions and how they were justified. For example “The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie” (Orwell 6).
Before beginning the explanation of how an identity is formed, one must understand what an identity is. So, what is identity? To answer this, one might think of what gives him individuality; what makes him unique; what makes up his personality. Identity is who one is. Identity is a factor that tells what one wants out of life and how he is set to get it. It tells what kind of a person one is by the attitude and persona he has. And it depends upon the mixture of all parts of one’s life including personal choices and cultural and societal influences, but personal choices affect the identity of one more than the others.
George Orwell, one of the most famous English authors, was born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, in 1903. His father was a colonial official for the British and his mother’s family also had colonial ties. In 1922, Orwell worked as a British imperial policeman in Burma for five years but he finally returned to England again because he recognized the injustices of the British imperial rule in Burma and could not suffer the guilt of oppressing the Burmese anymore. Later, Orwell spent the next twenty years as a writer; the essay “Shooting an Elephant,” set in the Burma of the 1920s and written in 1936, is one of his most famous works. In the early twentieth century, Burma was still a colony of Britain but anti-imperialism protests and social movements developed very fast, causing “great tension between Burmese, Indians and English, between civilians and police” (Meyers 56). Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” is based on this historical tension. In this essay, Orwell depicts an older narrator recounting his imperial policeman’s experience of killing an escaped elephant that destroyed a market and killed an Indian man in Burma. Throughout the story, Orwell chooses language carefully to develop his narration so as to help the readers explore a young imperial officer’s emotional struggle.
When thinking about Identity, it might be easy to just say that is “who we are”, or it’s just me. An identity is much more than that though. I like to think of it as a living puzzle. There are hundreds or thousands of pieces that come together to form the complete identity, or the complete “you”. I say living because an identity grows throughout the years and even changes depending on the situation. There is a multitude of influences that goes into forming a person’s identity some of which a person chooses and others they don’t. Family members and guardians are a primary source of learning when a child is young. As a person grows, the sphere of influence broadens to include mentors, media, and school. This identity is then a lens through which
Many would just think it to be an animal that went on a rampage but there is a meaning behind it. It’s death by Orwell shows the British Empire’s fall by its own officials. When Orwell talked about the “must” he was referring to the British Empire enforcing their dominance over the Burmese. Shooting the elephant was a difficult choice on Orwell’s part. He did not want to shoot it for he saw no threat once the must went away. The ones that wanted him to shoot it was the thousands of people behind him all excited to see him fire the rifle. “I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly” (Orwell 327). What that decision really represented was the British official working in the British colony. Orwell was the state, and the people were the people they serve. He either had to make the state happy, or the people he served
In George Orwell's essay "Shooting An Elephant," he writes about racial prejudice. Orwell is a British officer in Burma. The author is, "for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British"(842). Orwell feels caught in the middle of this cultural struggle. He sympathizes with the oppressed people of India, but is treated poorly, since he is viewed as one of the oppressors. He comes to terms with the role he plays in this vicious cycle of oppression , as an imperial servant, and the influence it has on him to shoot an elephant.
In conclusion, our identities give us the power to be anything but the main important part about identity is how we shape ourselves. What factors do we let contribute to who we think we are and who we know we are. Identity is the base which all of us stand on which determines who we are in life. Overall, identity should be on how you want others to view you and how you want to come off to them as. That to me is identity.
When he finial find the elephant Orwell say “I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” But when he lays his eyes on the crowd he changes his stance to “but I did not want to shoot the elephant.”(Orwell 199). He felt guilty for shooting the elephant when he describe that the elephant worth more alive than dead, but despite the many reason not to shoot the elephant, he took a shot. Orwell describes “when I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick …I fired again into the same spot…I fired a third time. That was the shot that did it for him.”(199) the shooting of the elephant represent the Burma people trying to stay alive and over powering by the
...upporting imperialism and the motivations behind their actions. Orwell, by admitting that his motive for killing the innocent beast was brought on by his own will to avoid humiliation at the hands of the locals means that Orwell is able to recognize the. With Orwell the oppression of the British on the Burmese people caused direct harm to Orwell. It is because of this cruelty found in humans that Orwell places emphasis in his essay on the unjustified violence inflicted on the elephant, who wrongly received judgement from the imperialistic response of Orwell to combat his own inner demons with the locals.
In today's world, society creates an impact on human life. More of an impact can be seen among family and peers. They can be found at home, work, and school. At home with family, identity can be created on the difference of having one parent, divorced or separated parents, no parents, abusive parents, or even negligent parents. For example, children who grow up without a father or mother figure tend to become more independent at an early stage. Another example is where certain experiences within the family such as constantly witnessing parents argue can cause one's identity to be confined and distant. But, some people shape their identity similar to their parents. Such as a son became a soldier in the army because his father was in the army. Siblings, if any, are also an influence on the social identity of a person. They either become your friend, mentor, or you...
His murder of the innocent elephant and the Indian coolie represented the barbaric nature of imperialism. The expansionist essence of a country is supposed to epitomize prosperity and strength. However, the imperialists treated innocent people like savages and reverted to barbaric ways. Orwell and the Burmese population ignored the freshly dead coolie in the mud because they focused on the bigger picture- the elephant. To them, the corpse was just another casualty, but the main attraction was the rouge giant. Similarly, imperialist nature desires for more, more, more, never focusing on the small accomplishments but instead on the big important goal ahead. Orwell’s fear of becoming the laughing stock of the Burmese deterred him from acting humanely and sparing the elephant. However, he already typified the puppet of the local population, wielding to their whims in order to maintain the power he thought he
What is identity? There is a common understanding of identity that is the distinct personality of individuals. Moreover, there is another understanding that the identities are the behavior that helps people to distinguish from others. Whatever the consideration is, identities represent who we are, and people are the combination of different identities. There are many people optimistic, but the number will be decreased while adding the other types of personality. Finally, there is only one person can fit into all the characters. That is the reason for the uniqueness of individuality. What is more, the formation of identities is the result of the surroundings. Andrew Solomon explains in his essay “Son,” that we are born with characteristics. The primary surrounding what people stay in their families where shaped their “vertical identity” that is the transmitted by their parents, such as gender, nationality, and races and those vertical identities are difficult to change. However, not all identities can be stable, Solomon suggests that there are also many “horizontal