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The case against moral relativism reading
Shooting an elephant thematic essay
The case against moral relativism reading
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As little kids, we learn lying is not okay and that we should never turn away from what we know is right and wrong. But as we get older, we find out that we end up doing what we promised to never do. In "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, Orwell is faced with a problem to shoot or to not shoot an elephant on the run; he is a British officer in Burma and is looked up to as a tough, stern, and harsh man. Orwell has no intentions to shoot this poor elephant that has done nothing wrong, but peer pressure and other thoughts that Orwell has convinced Orwell to shoot it. These thoughts that arise are as Orwell puts it, "when the white man turns tyrant it is own freedom that he destroys", and "he wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it" (288). …show more content…
Orwell describes this paradox only applying to white men, but this assumption limits his argument, and makes him sound ignorant to all humans. However, this suggestion of human nature is true of everyone today, throughout history and the current day. An example of this paradox in history is slavery. The slave owners were never mean, but once they got the slaves and saw the cruel, and harsh nature of slavery, the owners changed and became a tyrant. The freedom the slave owners used to have was their morals and values that they stuck to, but now those morals are gone and forgotten. The slave owners felt that they had to reprimand the slaves to show their power and status over them, thus the slaves would know their place and not have the confidence to stand up to their masters. This conclusion that Orwell draws is a paradox because tyranny takes your freedom because the person becoming tyrant is a slave to power. When one believes they are all powerful and mighty, there is no freedom to choose what to do with the role of being a tyrant; he must always be and act like the tyrant. As a result, Orwell must do what he knows is not right, go against his conscience, and shoot the
Every day, each individual will look back on decisions he or she have made and mature from those experiences. Though it takes time to realize these choices, the morals and knowledge obtained from them are priceless. In George Orwell’s nonfictional essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, a young Orwell was stationed in Burma for the British imperial forces, tasked to deal with an elephant who destroyed various parts of the village Moulmein while its owner was away. Backed by second thoughts and a crowd of thousands, he finds himself shooting the elephant and reflecting that it was not justified; however, it was a choice pushed by his duty and the people. Written with a fusion of his young and old self’s outlook on shooting the elephant, Orwell’s essay is a sensational read that captivates his audience and leaves them questioning his decision.
Although shooting the, now seemingly calm, “mad elephant” is morally wrong to George Orwell, in his narration of Shooting an Elephant, he has to do so as he is a representative, or more so a pawn, of the British authority in the occupied country of Burma. Being such, he wages a war with his inner self to seek which decision needs to be carried out. With two outcomes in mind, one being that he will be seen as a fool if he does not shoot the elephant and the other being an authority of the law by truly showing it and protecting the villagers, he has an epiphany. With such an authority, the law and someone’s moral conscience diverge. He then realizes what must be done and shoots the elephant to protect the imperialistic authority. As the excitement
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is a short story that not only shows cultural divides and how they affect our actions, but also how that cultural prejudice may also affect other parties, even if, in this story, that other party may only be an elephant. Orwell shows the play for power between the Burmese and the narrator, a white British police-officer. It shows the severe prejudice between the British who had claimed Burma, and the Burmese who held a deep resentment of the British occupation. Three messages, or three themes, from Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” are prejudice, cultural divide, and power.
The essay “Shooting an Elephant,” was written by George Orwell. Orwell was a British author best known for his essays and novels. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the title essay of his 1950 collection, Orwell is a British Police Officer in Lower Burma. After an elephant comes rampaging through the village in must, killing an Indian man, Orwell is looked upon to take care of the problem. The intense scene causes Orwell to make a crucial decision, reflecting on the vicious imperialism with the military in Burma during this time. The author portrays his feelings through the theme of the narrative with feelings such as, guilt, hate, and pressured.
In George Orwell novel, “Shooting an Elephant” he expresses his fear and indefinite feelings of shooting an elephant so that he can impress the natives of his town as a white man. Orwell’s purpose is to convey the white men of his town that holding a rifle in his hand means that he is self-reliant and can impress the natives. He creates a inside imagery of a convinced feeling and encouragement by the thousands of people that crowded the streets just to see him shot a elephant. By doing so, he builds the confidence from the town people that followed him as a way to show that natives what they expect from him. In George Orwell’s novel “Shooting an Elephant”, he gives the reader a observable understanding through his use of words using his imagery, tone words, and figurative language.
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 the essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell retells his experiences and feelings of being disrespected as a sub-divisional police officer in Moulmein, Burma. Early one morning, In the lower part of Burma, an elephant was reported ravaging the bazaar. As Orwell’s curiosity persuades him to go investigate the elephant, the author sees the damage that the elephant left behind. He prepares out of fear to “murder” the elephant with an elephant rifle. In doing this he excited the Burmese, who led a crowd behind Orwell, encouraging him to shoot the elephant who was now no more harmless than a cow. Orwell’s diction and actions, shows a complex tone towards the natives through his loyalties, his use of racist slurs, and his struggle with power and control.
Throughout the many essays and articles I’ve read in class, “Shooting An Elephant” happened to be the most intriguing. The beginning of the essay may have lead me to believe that the story would simply be the author telling the story of how he shot an elephant in a foreign country. However, as I read more the issue became apparent. It’s basically as if the issue was shadowed by the author’s own story and to fully understand the issue you would have to actually pay attention to the author’s tone and emotions as well as the way in which he describes his actions. To elaborate, the main point to be taken away from this particular essay revolved around the art of proper decision making. To realize this I had to take note of how the author described
“Shooting an Elephant” By George Orwell reveals the story of events during Orwell’s service as a sub-divisional police officer with the India Imperial Police, in Moulmein, Burma.
"Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency." Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency. Centre for Biological Diversity, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Throughout "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, he addresses his internal battle with the issues of morality and immorality. He writes of several situations that show his immoral doings. When George Orwell signed up for a five-year position as a British officer in Burma he was unaware of the moral struggle that he was going to face. Likewise, he has an internal clash between his moral conscious and his immoral actions. Therefore, Orwell becomes a puppet to the will of the Burmese by abandoning his thoughts of moral righteousness. This conflicts with the moral issue of relying upon other's morals, rather than one's own conscience.
Without actions, thoughts are just seeds without water, destined to die. Even with water, a plant may never reach its fullest potential. A plant could become six inches instead of six feet, it all depends on the amount of water. The seed that gets all the water it deserves will blossom and may never die, while the same seed that gets no water might as well never exist. Using water, seeds are transformed into plants. Seeds have grown into democracy, equality, and all that is good and bad in the world. In the end, it is all about the water (actions) that transforms the seed (ideas) to the kind of plant (result) that it will grow into. The quote by John Ruskin, “What we think, or what we know, or what we believe is, in the end, of little consequence.
There are many history books that discuss British Imperialism. However, I have not come across many writings on personal experiences during that period. In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell discusses his involvement with Imperialism. Orwell served as a European police officer in Burma during the time of Imperialism. In his writing of “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell describes an incident of an elephant on the loose, and what he had to do to control the situation. Orwell was successful in conveying his experience due to his use of dichotomy, imagery, and cause and effect.
Kipling's "White Man's Burden," was written after the end of the Spanish-American War as pro-colonization propaganda. The Spanish-American War was fought over colonies like the Philippines, where the poem takes place. The piece glorifies the struggles of a white man, colonizing indigenous people. In George Orwell's piece, "Shooting the Elephant," the main character is a sub-divisional police officer, stationed in Burma. It is about his experience with the Burmese people, as a white man in authority. Both works describe the "white man's" experience with colonization but the complexity in "Shooting an Elephant," details
From the beginning of the narrative “Shooting An Elephant,” George Orwell creates a character with a diminished sense of self. The character narrates, “I was hated by large numbers of people -- the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me” (Orwell, 58). All he wants is attention and it is evident that even negative attention is better than being ignored. He hates working for the British as a sub-divisional police officer in the town of Moulmein. He even makes it known to the audience that, “Theoretically -- and secretly, of course -- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (58). The character knows he does not want to be in this position, as a Anglo-Indian