...In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell is placed in a situation with an “untamed” elephant. Orwell is a police officer stuck on duty in Burma from which he desperately wants to leave. He is well aware of the fact that the Burmese people do not like him at all; however, he is the one who they call on when there is trouble. According to me, Orwell uses his story of shooting the elephant to exemplify the peer pressure he feels in Burma from its people. As we read in his essay, after much debate with himself of how the elephant did not intentionally harm anyone he still decides or is pressured into shooting the elephant. Complications of his ego, and fear of losing his dignity puts the life of the harmless beast in secondary priority. The unexplainable love-hate situation between the colonizer and the colonized is one of the factors of Orwell’s decision of shooting the elephant. According to Orwell, the colonizer he feels that whatever is happening in Burma with the colonized is wrong. "I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically - and secretly, of course - I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British" (Orwell 525). Though he likes the Burmese people they still don’t give him the same respect. By shooting the elephant he thinks he will gain their respect. We can...
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...SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT PRATIK THAPA "Shooting an Elephant" tells a story of George Orwell as he struggles between his moral objection to not shoot an elephant and legal responsibility to shoot it. Throughout his adventure, he decides that it is best to kill the elephant however he believes that It is against his rationale. Though, he feels bad about killing the elephant, he kills it at last and he tries to justify his act throughout the whole essay explaining how pressuring and compelling the situation was and why he had to do it. First of all, he describes how destructive the elephant was. I think this, as his first justification for killing an elephant. He thinks it is important to kill something that is endangering public lives and public property. He quotes, “It had already destroyed somebody's bamboo hut, killed a cow and raided some fruit-stalls and devoured the stock; also it had met the municipal rubbish van and, when the driver jumped out and took to his heels, had turned the van over and inflicted violence upon it.” Even with this judgment, it seems difficult for him to decide if he really has to kill that animal and he waits for alternative. Secondly, he continues to describe the Elephant being more violent. As he passes, the village, he sees many acts of the elephant that he describes as cruel and unkind. He also sees “a dead man’s body sprawling in the mud.” His use of words such as “head sharply twisted to one side”, “the teeth bared and grinning with an...
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...Everyday every person faces to moral dilemma .According to urban dictionary a moral dilemma is a conflict in which you have to choose between two or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action.Like in the essay “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell finds himself in a moral dilemma. Our main character a police officer in the British Raj, and he writes about his experience or moral dilemma 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...
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...messages and/or themes from George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant. Peer Pressure, peer pressure is when one person does something against their morals/beliefs or even wants because the people, usually a group of people, tell or expect this person to do. There are many ways to be pressured into doing something that one may not agree with, and there are many people who would push for whatever task to be done. George Orwell was an early twentieth century poet, he lived from 1903 to 1950. Orwell is most commonly known for his novel Animal Farm, which was set in 1984. As well as an established writer, Orwell also was the creator of the common terms such as, “big brother,” and “newspeak.” One of Orwell’s essays called Shooting...
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...Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell New Writing, Autumn 1936 IN Moulmein, in lower Burma, 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. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter. No one had the guts to raise a riot, but if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress. 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. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans. All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically—and secretly, of course—I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make...
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...A Disgusted Diction Many stupid choices are made by a dare or when their made fun of. Many effects of these choices are usually not good. This has happened many times including in the short story shooting an elephant. A Even though George Orwell appears to be an authority figure in the short story the author's diction, is a tone of disgust and mockery. To begin, Orwell portrays the mocking tone of the Burmese people as harsh insults. For example “There were several thousand of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans” (Orwell). The diction that sticks out in this sentence is the word jeering, cause jeering itself sounds like an insult and it also sounds really...
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...the officer take decisions that they ought not to in their daily lives. For example Orwell states that “the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny...prostate people”, and he goes on in the same paragraph mentioning the “bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts”. “feelings like these are normal by the products of imperialism ask any anglo indian official” Imperialism also promotes racism, prejudice, and resentment. The oppressors continues to break rules and disregards rights in order to stay in power and to show control of the land and people. This increases resentment in natives as shown in the story that even though the elephant does not have any strength the officer wants to make sure that it dies, “lands a bullet after a bullet to put the beast to end”, meaning the oppressor wants to make sure that enough damage is done to those oppressed that they are completely broken and have no ways to resent or to retaliate. Even though the elephant stood their and was calm the officer still made the decision of shooting it basing on the “yellow faces” as he mentions would have thought of him as weak or fool if he hadn’t shot the elephant. This certainly shows that the oppressor would do anything in his power regardless of it being right or wrong, moral or immoral, humane or inhumane, etc...to make himself look powerful and in control and we can also see that in the statement made by the officer Orwell narrates that: “It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than...
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...In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell was confronted with an elephant that was bringing chaos to Burma. As a white officer, he was expected to assume responsibility of the circumstance and was ultimately pressured to shoot it. He executed it, regretfully and against his ethical nature. The issue with this was that he understood regardless of his position or status, he was not the slightest bit in control of himself and was forced into conferring a demonstration that goes totally against his tendency. Orwell's opening sentence, “…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.” sets the tone for comes from this realization. The essay is a straight-forward portrayal of the...
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...paragraph seven of his work “Shooting an Elephant”, he is able to establish a revelation he experiences to the reader in expert detail. The reader is experiences is awed as they realize Orwell’s epiphany, that he comes to see that although the white man’s rule is futile, he still conforms to it by deciding to shoot the elephant. Orwell begins strong, describing the vast crowd that has gathered around him in order to witness his shooting of the rampaging elephant. The author’s use of descriptions such as “a sea of yellow faces” and stating the way the multitude of spectators was comparable to the face of someone while watching a magician conjure a trick, allows the reader to fully imagine the size of the audience as well as their feeling of awe at watching Orwell ready himself to shoot the elephant. The reader realizes that Orwell has suddenly become a large spectacle and focus of admiration, although sentences earlier he was an object worthy of hatred. This imagery the author provides, leads in part to the reader recognizing Orwell’s inner struggle,...
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...did he shoot the elephant? There are many different reasons as to why George Orwell chose to shoot the Elephant in the short story, ”Shooting an Elephant”. In the following essay, there will be a wide and deep response of why George Orwell chose to shoot the elephant in the end. The first and primary reason for George Orwell shooting the elephant is simply Orwell being afraid. He was originally not intending to shoot the elephant; he merely brought the rifle for his own protection. “I had no intention of shooting the elephant – I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary – and it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder and an ever-growing army of people jostling at my heels” . This quote first of all shows that Orwell actually did not intend the shooting of the elephant. It also shows the pressure he is being held upon by the Burmese crowd. It might seem a bit strange that Orwell feels pressured, as he is the superior and the Burmese is the inferior, but the thing is, Orwell is pressured because he is in fact the one without power in this situation. He is being laughed at and ridiculed buy the locals, which of course touches his emotions and he is greatly outnumbered by the thousand man crowd. So in reality a part of the cause of George Orwell shooting the elephant is social motives. Being pressured by the Burmese is not his only motive; Orwell also wants to feel...
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...Shooting an elephant - By George Orwell Imperialism is the appellation for a policy, where a ruler in a country attempts to oppress another country. This is mainly the theme and point in the essay “Shooting an elephant” The story is written by the author George Orwell, and centers about this problem which was going on between the British and the Burmese. The essay is written as a metaphor describing the British imperialism, and gives the readers an insight in how George's opposition against the imperialism is expressed. Another theme in the story is the meeting between two cultures – in where it describes the burmese, that despise the British. Apart from that, George himself is going though a process of self-deception, which is showed clearly in this story. George Orwell was born on 25th June 1903, and was a well known English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic. George Orwell was one of the most influential English writers in the 20th century, and is mostly known for the novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” and the novella “Animal Farm”. George Orwell was working in The British Imperial Police from 1922-1927, where he wrote the essay “Shooting an elephant” as a reflection about the British imperialism in India. The setting is in Moulmein in Lower Burma in the 1920's, and is taking place in a poor city. “It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palm-leaf, winding all over a steep hillside.” (Page 112, line 12-14) The society...
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...March 20, 2012 Shooting an Elephant and Decolonising the Mind In life, we as humans often make decisions that we would not have made on our own if we would not of had influence by someone else. In both “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell and “Decolonising the Mind,” by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o both Orwell and Thiong’o received the British colonial education. As humans, others' opinions mean a great deal to us, and in "Shooting an Elephant", and “Decolonising the Mind,” they both have one thing in common: English. "Shooting an Elephant" is the story of a British policeman in Moulmein, a city in Burma, that is torn between shooting or not shooting an elephant that has gone ramped. Many people may misinterpret George Orwell's tone in the essay "Shooting an Elephant." People often construe that the story is about Orwell's decision to either shoot the elephant, or to just peacefully observe it until the mahout came to tame the animal. The story is actually about the struggles Orwell faces because of his position "in between" the Burmese and the imperialistic system. Orwell portrays a distinctive amount of irony in this piece of writing because after he reviewed the situation and started this essay, he spotted a lot of irony in the actions between himself, the people of Burma, and the British Empire. Thiong’o gives a powerful image of how British government tries to control the culture of Kenya. In “Decolonising the Mind”, Thiong’o illustrates his childhood: “All the...
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...In the story of Shooting an Elephant the author George Orwell uses many themes that can be related to yourself in life. In the story, the protagonist is himself and he explains the empire of the British that controls Burma and the Burmese natives. He is a police man in lower Burma, and is forced to shoot a ravaging elephant that is tearing up the town otherwise the town people would joke and laugh at him. The overall theme of this story is peer pressure from the people and also the power of imperialism that can affect you and others. The story is told in a first person point of view. Orwell describes himself through the narrator’s voice. He described the Burmese people as mean and disrespectful. The village police were often teased and made fun of because of their ethnicity and look. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so” (Orwell, G. (1950). Shooting An Elephant.). The police of the town were obviously noticeable to heckle. The readers of the story have to recognize the power of peer pressure. It can cause a big amount of anxiety which can make you think different in different situations....
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...Peer Innocence (An Analysis of Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell) Pressure is a common obstacle throughout the journey of life. Whether it is stress, a big due date, or peer pressure, it is experienced nearly every day. Peer pressure is defined as getting forced into something that was not wanted by other people, friend or not. It is considered a form of bullying. In the story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, is a personal narrative of what happened to him when he was a police officer in Burma, India. Peer pressure was what made him make the decision he did and due to that he has to live forever with the consequences. Certainly, we have all fallen to some form of peer pressure. Peer pressure can greatly influence decisions, always...
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...extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force” (Oxford Dictionary). In the essay “Shooting An Elephant” by George Orwell, imperialism is portrayed as a corrupt act in which the British Empire imposes itself on Burma. Orwell use rhetorical techniques to describe how imperialism can create grotesque effects on both the British and Burmese. In Orwell’s essay, characters such as the police officer, the local Burmese people and the elephant display the brutal reality British imperialism. The British police officer serves his country in Burma and is constantly mocked by the local Burmese. But, one day they praise him when he kills the outrageous elephant that is let loose in the neighborhood. George Orwell effectively depicts the theme of imperialistic depravity through the use of symbolism, irony and visual imagery in “Shooting An Elephant.” George Orwell exemplifies the immorality of British imperialism through the use of symbolism. In “Shooting An Elephant,” the elephant becomes wild and starts raging through the Burmese neighborhood. Its angry outburst and temper tantrum destroys “somebody’s bamboo hut, [kills] a cow” (257) and injures a Burmese local. The Burmese are “helpless against it” (257). The elephant symbolizes British imperialism as its power is untamed and dangerous. The fact that the natives are unable to control the elephant also emphasizes Burma’s impotence under...
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