'Imperialism In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant'

George Orwell’s personal narrative “Shooting An Elephant” expresses the message that imperialism is wrong. He demonstrates this through his occupation as the sub divisional police officer in the essay when talking about an experience with an angry elephant. In Scott Russell Sanders personal essay “The Inheritance of Tools” he expresses the message that tradition and family are important. He demonstrates this by talking about his father’s death and the impact he made in his life. In both stories the authors use three rhetorical strategies to capture the reader's attention, which are, time, significance and persona. Sanders time in the story is not chronological while Orwell’s story is. Both stories timing’s are efficiently integrated and

incorporate significance differently through different uses and meanings of objects. Sanders used a variety of objects such as a hammer, knives, and flashbacks about his father to acknowledge the importance of family and tradition while Orwell only used the elephant to highlight the importance of imperialism being an inhumane thing. The time and significance is what . Although, both authors narratives are about topics that are important to them they have distinct time, significance and persona.

Time is important when talking about your own story and what Sanders and Orwell did was very different from one another. Sanders narrative was mainly about his father who had recently died which led to a lot of past memories that would come and go along the way. His time was not chronological and would go from present to past and so on.
Integration of evidence- There was a memorable time where Sanders describes a memory in which he accidentally hammered his thumb and his father had told him that by looking at the nail he would no longer hit his thumb. The hammer had left a “white scar” that was shaped like a “crescent moon” and would remind him of his “father” every time he “noticed” (Sanders 132) it. Analysis- Every time Sanders looked at his thumb he would remember his father trying to teach him how to properly hit a nail. Sanders went from noticing his thumb and remembering something from a long time ago in the past where his father was still alive and raised him. They included life lessons and memorable moments where Sanders would later on see as a mold of his future. However, Orwell’s narrative timing was chronological. He started from the moment when he became a subdivisional police officer up to the moment where he had killed the elephant and was found to have done the right thing under the eyes of the law. “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (Orwell 92). Orwell’s present time reflections allowed the reader to think critically on if he had made the right or wrong choice by killing the elephant. It brought a hard look on oneself as well since Orwell was brought into peer pressure questioning if the reader would have done the same thing. Orwell and Sanders designated time arrangement within the narratives were acceptable because it allowed the reader to question themselves if they had been in the same situation and helped them understand the story than if it were told in a different time arrangement.

Significance was another factor in Sanders and Orwell’s narratives that allowed them to be unique and enhance the story. Sander’s family has a hammer that has been passed on for a couple generations. His father and grandfather had used it and now he was going to be the next to use the hammer. “ The hammer had belonged to him, and to his father before him” (Sanders 132). The hammer symbolizes a strong connection in the family on how tradition and family are important. The significance gives the reader the hint about what is going on and what is the main point of the story. It allows the reader to connect the main idea and extends outwards toward smaller ideas that turn into big ones. The same goes for Orwell’s narrative essay. Although, Orwell’s narrative was in chronological order he too had a significance. The whole story was significant because it brought the main point being that imperialism is bad and should not be tolerated. “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 the elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie” ( Orwell 92). Orwell was able to catch the reader’s eye when making a point on imperialism using significance. The elephant had to do with significance a lot because it is the main reason people can tell what the point of the story is. By the time the older men said Orwell did well by killing it and the younger men said he did wrong by killing it because it was worth a lot the point was stressed.

Lastly, persona was another factor that allowed both authors to help the readers engage.

In “The Inheritance of Tools”, Sanders demonstrates himself as a vulnerable man when he realizes his father had passed away. There are moments in which he wants to demonstrate he is able to get over his death but the significance of things in the narrative make it harder for him to forget. “My wife and children followed me and wrapped me in arms and backed away again, circling and staring as if I were on fire” (Sanders 138). By demonstrating his weaker side in the story he is able to capture the reader by using pathos. Making them feel bad for him because he lost his father engages them in a way that would want them to understand how it looks for someone to lose someone important in their life. Orwell was also able to use pathos in his narrative when he told the part when he killed the elephant. The elephant cried out loud and could not die instantly. “In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. I heard later that it took him half an hour to die” (Orwell 92). Orwell described the elephants suffering in such a detailed way that it makes the reader feel like they themselves killed it. He used pathos. Making someone feel for the elephant overall was the way in which Orwell brought attention into his personal

narrative.

In conclusion, ….