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George orwell's writing style and theme
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George orwell's writing style and theme
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George Orwell was born in India and was educated in England. Later he joined the Imperial Police in Burma were he traveled to countries. All throw out his life he wrote about difficult situations that had ordinary incites. In 1984 he died but his lifelong commitment was as relevant as ever. In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell there are 3 messages that in some way or another has to deal with peer pressure.
Orwell was a cop in another land where the people there didn’t really like him much because he was there to keep order because his country just took it over. The people there made him feel like a failure and like really bad. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” So being the guy that is from the country that just took over your country he was
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Orwell gets out and tries to find this elephant and in the process he walks upon a dead guy and calls for his rifle for protection and then is when things started to get interesting. When the people see him with the rifle they get existed because they think he is going to shoot the elephant and everyone wants so see so as he keeps going to find the elephant more people follow him. Finally he finds the elephant in a field and he wants to leave it alone but there is a crowed behind him that wants him to shoot it. He thinks about it for a little bit and gets on the ground for a better shot at the elephant. “When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick….. but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowed.” If he didn’t have the crowed then I bet he would have left it
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
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.
“Shooting an Elephant” focuses on society by pressure. In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell is pressured by the native people to shoot and kill the elephant, even though the elephant is no longer harmless. In the beginning of the essay, the natives repeatedly attack Orwell every day. When the elephant goes insane, the natives go to Orwell for help. The natives were constantly pressuring Orwell as he said, “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him” (Orwell par. 7). Orwell is pressured by society to do the opposite of what he feels is morally
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.
Early on in his essay, Orwell describes how the abuses and treatment he witnessed oppressed him '… with an intolerable sense of guilt,'; (Orwell,277). This is not some minor pang, or nagging worry. The shame pressed down on his shoulders with an unbearable weight. He also describes the injustices in detail, using vivid pictures like 'The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages…'; (Orwell,277). This does not come from someone who condones such behavior. It stems from a troubled, remorseful soul.
The Life and Works of George Orwell Eric Authur Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, was born on January 23, 1903 at Motihari in Bengal. Orwell was brought up in what he considered a less fortunate family when it came to money. Only a few days after his only son's birth, Orwell's father, Richard Blair, retired from his position as a minor official in the Indian Customs with a small pension. The lack of wealth in his family growing up caused Orwell to see the world in different class distinctions. Everyone and everything Orwell faced in the earlier stages of his life, he immediately judged based on its place in the different financial levels of society.
In this story ,Orwell is taking part in imperialism by proving his power and dignity to the natives presenting imperialism metaphorically through the use of animals. He is using the elephant as a symbol of imperialism representing power as an untamed animal that has control over the village. He uses a large and very powerful animal to represent a significant metaphor for imperialism.. In doing so he leads to the understanding that the power behind imperialism is only as strong as its dominant rulers. Orwell?s moral values are challenged in many different ways, ironically enough while he too was the oppressor. He is faced with a very important decision of whether or not he should shoot the elephant. If he does so, he will be a hero to his people. In turn, he would be giving in to the imperial force behind the elephant that he finds so unjust and evil. If he lets the elephant go free and unharmed the natives will laugh at him and make him feel inferior for not being able to protect the...
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.
He illustrates the effects that imperialism can cause on a society. He creates an abominable diction through words such as “hatred,” “rage,” “evil,” which are feelings that according to Orwell “are normal by products of imperialism.” (Orwell, 1101) Through his diction he appeals to pathos as he creates a feeling of appalment among his audience. Orwell utilizes the appeal to ethos as he recounts the shooting of an elephant, which becomes a metaphor for imperialism. Orwell claims that this event “was enlightening” (Orwell, 1101) as it allowed him to understand the nature for which humans take some of the actions they carry. During the event of the elephant on the loose in the streets of Burma, Orwell uses the rhetorical device of imagery to describe the crowd of “yellow faces” who demonstrated enthusiasm for the killing of the elephant. As Orwell contemplates the action point of shooting the elephant he realized that he would “have to shoot the elephant after all” (Orwell 1103) since the people expected him to do so. “two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing- no that was impossible.”(Orwell, 1103) Like Thoreau had stated, the
Lying down on the ground to take aim, he shot in the wrong spot to kill the elephant in the most humane way possible. The slow, agonizing death of the elephant took a whole half hour and multiple discharges of his rifle, due to Orwell’s ignorance of how to kill an elephant quickly. At the beginning of his essay, once again in painfully honest fashion, he mentions stinking prisons, scarred backsides and sullen faces, all images that are an indelible memory for him of what totalitarian regimes include. His pattern of development is chronological and his use of language is graphic.
In “Shooting an Elephant,” the main character, a “foreigner” in another country, who is hated by the native people. When put on the spot, when everyone was interested in him for once. He caves and does what everyone expects of him. I believe everyone, at one time or another has felt this way. I felt this way in middle school. The shortest, shyest, and slowest person in the grade, me. I don’t think my peers hated me, but I wasn’t the most popular person of whom everyone knew. I constantly felt pressured by my parents to get the perfect grades. I caved into the pressure and worked harder to get the good grades they wanted. Even though I had good enough grades to pass and feel good about, mainly high “B’s,” a couple “C’s,” and one “A.” Even though
The quest for power is one which has been etched into the minds of men throughout history. However, it can be said that true power is not a result of one’s actions but comes from the following one’s own beliefs without being influenced by others. This principle sets up the story for Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell. The protagonist, Orwell himself, is a sub divisional police officer in Burma, a British colony. Orwell must try to find and use his inner power when he is faced with the decision of whether or not to kill an elephant which has ravaged the Burman’s homes. The state of power established through the imperialistic backdrop show that Orwell, as a colonist, should be in control. As well, the perspective and ideas given by Orwell show his true character and lessen the overall power set up for him. Lastly, the symbols shown are representations of traditional forms of power, but take on different implications in the story. In Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell uses setting, characterization and symbols to show that true power comes from following the dictates of one’s conscience.
George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, was born in India. He was later educated in England and joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. He aspired to pursue a career in writing after resigning from the Police force; experiencing little success, he took on many amateurish jobs in order to receive any income he could. Eventually he went on to publish a handful of pieces, those of which include A Hanging published in 1931 and Marrakech published in 1939. In both of these pieces, Orwell develops the pressing theme of dehumanization throughout the cultures he observed over various decades by taking away persons’ humanly features.
The first two paragraphs establishes that in Lower Burma, it’s divided. It’s anti-European in the first paragraph “I was sub-divisional police officer...anti-European feeling was very bitter”. Also in paragraph one “No one had the guts….betel juice over her dress” The people of Burma would see European women and spit at them for simply being European. George being European was
Orwell?s extraordinary style is never displayed well than through ?Shooting an Elephant,? where he seemingly blends his style and subject into one. The story deals with a tame elephant that all of a sudden turns bad and kills a black Dravidian coolie Indian. A policeman kills this elephant through his conscience because the Indians socially pressurized him greatly. He justified himself as he had killed elephant as a revenge for coolie.