A Literary Analysis of the Solutions Used in the Two Texts, Shooting an Elephant, and No Witchcraft for Sale

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Recommended: Determining decision making

Many times in life, people get put into situations in which they have to make some kind of solution to a problem that they are faced with. One example of this is when I was faced with the choice to either call the police or not when I spotted shoplifting in Washington D.C. just the other day. I was just standing there, when I noticed two women scooping stuff into their giant purses and then they ran out of a store. I was in so much shock that I couldn’t say anything; although after the incident happened, I had the choice of either calling the police or not. In relation, there are two texts in this section that deal with people that have to make a choice on making a solution to a problem. In the text, Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell, the speaker is faced with the decision to shoot and kill a rampaging elephant. In the text, No Witchcraft for Sale, by Doris Lessing, the character Gideon is faced with the decision on whether to give the white scientists his medicinal theories that saved a boy from going blind. In both of the texts, Shooting an Elephant, and No Witchcraft for Sale, the solutions are either good or bad. 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... ... middle of paper ... ...ll bugs him, saying, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.”(Pg. 1326). In the end, Gideon’s solution was way better than Orwell’s. In conclusion, there are obviously good and bad solutions in life, including ones in the texts from this section of our text book. First of all, in the text Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell, the speaker, Orwell, makes the solution of shooting a crazy elephant in order to not look weak or foolish. In addition, in the text No Witchcraft for Sale, by Doris Lessing, the character Gideon’s solution to his problem is to send the wanting scientists on a wild goose chase to find the plant that he used to heal the little boy Teddy’s eyes from snake venom. Although both may not be perfect solutions to their problems, the better of the two would obviously be Gideon’s solution.

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