George Orwell Shooting And Elephant Analysis

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George Orwell was a British author that served for five years as an India Imperial Police officer. Orwell died at the early age of 46 years old from tuberculosis. In Orwell’s “Shooting and Elephant” he displays many different feelings such as guilt, hatred, and oppression. First, Orwell displays many times throughout his essay where he feels guilty. Orwell says “The Wretched prisoners huddling in… the grey, cowed faces of the long term convicts… all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt” (320). Orwell is suggesting that seeing the way the prisoners had been treated, seeing the way they looked, and seeing their living conditions had made him feel so guilty he was oppressed by it. Another instance where Orwell feels guilty was when he killed the elephant. He only decided to shoot it when all of the people were behind him, and he did not want to look like a fool. Another way you can recognize Orwell’s guilt is in his word usage. He uses words like “dreadful” and “tortured” to describe the slow dying process of the elephant. …show more content…

Orwell says “As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than perhaps I can make clear. In a job like that you see the dirt work of empires at close quarters” (320). Orwell states that he is for the Burmese, so to see and work for people who work against them filled him with hatred. Orwell also says “All I knew was I was stuck… hatred of the empire… little beasts that made my job impossible” (320). Again, Orwell was for the Burmese, and he hated the empire that he served. Also, his job was made impossible. Orwell expresses great hatred by saying “I thought the greatest joy in life would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priests guts” (320). The reason Orwell feels this strongly is because of

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