In the essay, Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell illustrates his experiences as a British police officer in Lower Burma, and reflects it to the nature of imperialism. Since “anti-European feeling was very bitter” due to the British Empire’s dictatorship in Burma, Orwell is being treated disrespectfully by the Burmese (12). This allows him to hate his job and the British Empire. However, the incident of shooting of an elephant gives him a “better glimpse … of the real nature of imperialism – the real motives for which despotic government act” (13). Through his life experiences as a British man, Orwell efficiently demonstrates the negative effects of imperialism on individuals and society.
With the usage of effective diction in his essay, Orwell excellently conveys his emotions and message to his readers. He often uses the word “natives” for the Burmese: “Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd” (15). By doing so, he shows his emotions and respect towards the Burmese because calling them “natives” suggests that he agrees on the fact that they are the true owner of Burma and not the British Empire. Also, by frequently using the word “natives”, Orwell reminds his readers the existence of imperialism in Burma so that the readers do not simply hang on to the elephant but also get the message incorporated in the essay. The body of the elephant is compared to machinery as Orwell thinks that killing an elephant “is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery” (15). This comparison makes the readers realize that the British Empire is also like a huge piece of machinery, so the death of it would be a serious matter to both oppressor and people being oppressed. When Orwell wa...
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...Shooting an Elephant. According to what Orwell is trying to impose, his target audience seems to be youth, adults, and politicians as imperialism is more reflected off of people under these categories. As a police officer, Orwell teaches his readers that imperialism is the worst way to govern a country as it is harmful to an individual’s way of thinking and value of morality in society. He proved that in an imperialism based system, no one is actually dominant over one another as they all end up being slaves of each other. This results in demolished and demoralized society. Orwell achieves his goal outstandingly by playing with rhetorical devices, tone, diction, and sentence structure to generate the feeling in the audience the way he desires. In result, Orwell brilliantly uses the incident of killing an elephant to describe the negative effects of imperialism.
In Orwell’s reflective narrative, “Shooting an Elephant”, he reveals the truth on imperialism. Through the utilization of irony and the method of appeals, Orwell shows the reader that imperialism is just a definition because the people are in control, not Britain.
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 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.
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.
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 titled, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, he explains the culture of where he worked in Burma. He explains “a small incident” that he had to confront, while he was a police officer in Burma. A small crowd wants an elephant, who escaped from its cage, dead. They want to stop the elephant’s treacherous deeds. These include: the elephant killed a man, killed a cow, and it destroyed someone’s hut. Orwell goes out with a gun in search of the elephant, but doesn’t intend to shoot the elephant. When he goes out in search for the elephant, who has supposedly gone crazy, a crowd of many people follow him. The crowd wants him to shoot the elephant. In this essay, Orwell was challenged
In the short story, “Shooting an Elephant” the author, George Orwell, uses figurative language supporting his points telling a story in which he shoots and kills an elephant that was out of control in Moulmein, located in lower Burma. (Orwell, 1950) Orwell is a sub-divisional police officer of the town, which was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. He explains in the story how he was influenced with peer pressure, and forced to kill an elephant even though he did not feel it was right. (Orwell, 1950) He displays his view of imperialism explaining his thoughts of the death of the elephant. Orwell’s purpose of writing the essay is to show the evil of imperialism and how it made up his mind that imperialism was an evil thing. (Orwell, 1950) Orwell implies in the short story, he recognizes humans can be easily influenced and the harm of imperialism of other humans and how humans will act in activities to avoid looking foolish or embarrassed in front of others. Orwell uses the death of the elephant as a metaphor of British imperialism in Burma to symbolize Burma’s struggle under the Britain control. (Orwell, 1950) The
Orwell speaks of how he is so against imperialism, but gives in to the natives by shooting the elephant to prove he is strong and to avoid humiliation. He implies that he does not want to be thought of as British, but he does not want to be thought the fool either. Orwell makes his decision to shoot the elephant appear to be reasonable but underneath it all he questions his actions just as he questions those of the British. He despised both the British Empire as well as the Burmese natives, making everything more complicated and complex. In his essy he shows us that the elephant represents imperialism; therefore, the slow destruction of the elephant must represent the slow demise of British Imperialism.
In “Shooting an Elephant” writer George Orwell illustrates the terrible episode that explains more than just the action of “shooting an elephant.” Orwell describes the scene of the killing of an elephant in Burma and reveals a number of emotions he experienced during the short, but traumatic event. Effectively, the writer uses many literary techniques to plant emotions and create tension in this scene, leading to an ironic presentation of imperialism. With each of the realistic descriptions of the observing multitude and the concrete appeal of the narrator’s pathos, Orwell thrives in persuading the audience that imperialism not only has a destructive impact on those being governed under the imperialists’ oppressive power, but also corrupts
In his short story account of shooting an elephant, George Orwell challenges the negligent ideas of imperialism, peer pressures and pride. In Shooting an Elephant Orwell uses diction, and symbolism bring forth the idea that the subjugation of other beings is morally wrong.
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.
I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." So ends George Orwell's poignant reminiscence of an incident representing the imperialist British in Burma. Unlike Soyinka, who wrote about colonialism from the African's point of view, Orwell, like Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness, presents the moral dilemmas of the imperialist. Orwell served with the Imperialist Police in Burma while it was still part of the British Commonwealth and Empire. His service from 1922 to 1927 burdened himwith a sense of guilt about British colonialism as well a need to make some personal expiation for it (Norton 2259). "Shooting an Elephant" chronicles an incident in which Orwell confronts a moral dilemma and abandons his morals to escape the mockery of the native Burmans. He repeatedly shoots and kills an elephant which had ravaged a bazaar and scared many Burmans even though "As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him" (6).
Orwell furthers the cycle of brutish imperialism by shooting the innocent elephant, just like the innocent Indian people had been
The main gist of “Shooting an Elephant” feels like it is asking for an opinion on Orwell’s actions, whether him shooting the elephant was right or wrong. The main theme of the essay is based on the idea that many of our actions are influenced by other people , especially if we are insecure about what we are doing. This idea was expressed through the different literary features that he used including the use of tone, voice, mood and characterization. The tone of voice within Orwell’s essay is reflective because he is explaining a past experience by using words “like at that age”, and “I did not then know” . The essay is written in the first person so this makes it seem like the voice of this essay belongs to Orwell himself; however, Orwell may have written about someone else, but choosing the first person makes the story sound more personal, which also makes it easier for the audience to relate it to their own experiences.
"Shooting an Elephant" is perhaps one of the most anthologized essays in the English language. It is a splendid essay and a terrific model for a theme of narration. The point of the story happens very much in our normal life, in fact everyday. People do crazy and sometimes illegal moves to get a certain group or person to finally give them respect. George Orwell describes an internal conflict between his personal morals and his duty to his country to the white man's reputation. The author's purpose is to explain the audience (who is both English and Burmese) about the kind of life he is living in Burma, about the conditions, circumstances he is facing and to tell the British Empire what he think about their imperialism and his growing displeasure for the imperial domination of British Empire.