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 …show more content…
He felt ashamed because his entire purpose for shooting the elephant was to avoid scrutiny by those who were not fond of him anyway. The author’s need for validation overruled his greater nature. This caused me to ponder the entire decision making process. Why do we make the decisions we make and do we always take into consideration how we will feel afterwards? The same concept applies to the things we say when we are in arguments. Morally, we are aware that we should not say certain things because they will harm the other person however, we choose to say them anyway in an attempt to preserve our own egos. This basically entails that the battle is not between what is right and what is wrong but what we know is wrong and whether or not we should complete the action anyway. This journal assignment in particular providing a chance for me to single out one article that I remembered despite all of the other journal entries we have completed. This indicated that this particular essay was particularly interesting and enabled me to actually think outside of the box when breaking down stories and understanding
However, sometimes society becomes more dangerous for us when it tries to kill our own morality. The police officer was influenced by other people to kill the elephant and it made him feel guilty. However, David Sedaris forged ahead by himself and finally, he understood the French language and he felt proud of himself. Both characters were under pressure in their situations, but at the end the police officer was unhappy and David Sedaris was happy. Therefore, it is very important what we like to do, not what others demand.
Therefore, without friction, the story would be uninteresting to the reader. Arguments, disputes, and struggles are the main causes of conflict. However, there are two categories which conflict falls under: individual and group conflict. Individual conflict revolves around man vs. man and man vs. self. The first sign of conflict in “Shooting an Elephant” represents man vs. self: “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” (Orwell 619). The importance of man vs. self-conflict in “Shooting an Elephant” is used to affect the reader’s emotions. For this reason, the reader feels compassionate towards the sub-divisional police officer. Man vs. man conflict is between the officer and the Burmese citizens: “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” (Orwell 620). There are several types of conflict and they each have a significant
“But I did not want to shoot the elephant.... It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him.” (Orwell 95)
The author’s main point was when Orwell was faced with a conflict of whether he should shoot the elephant. He could have chosen to shoot the elephant and please the crowd or he could have chosen not to shoot the elephant, despite the crowd’s jeering effects. I don’t agree that the Orwell should have shot the elephant, because the elephant didn’t know all that he was doing was wrong, because he is an animal, who has no free will. The only reason Orwell shot it was so he didn’t look a fool. He quotes at the end of the essay after he shot the elephant, “And afterwards I often wondered whether anyone understood that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool”
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
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.
In “Shooting an Elephant” , human nature is the same as it would be in just about any story that we would read or hear. Human nature is no different in Burma than anywhere else in the world. In this story we see different degrees of human nature, from completely normal to in some cases extreme. This essay is mainly focused on peer pressure. “Should I shoot the elephant or should I not?” or “Will I lose face with these people if I don’t shoot the elephant?” In this essay, I will discuss the traits of the different characters.
Every author puts a great deal of effort in making their work successful, meaningful and symbolic however, some author do excellent job in achieving this goal and on the other hand some might be unsuccessful to achieve the goal. In the essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, the author George Orwell has worked extremely hard to express and relate the meaning of the symbols to the story. In the essay, the protagonist character George Orwell is the Indian imperial police officer in Burma and is hated by Burmese people because he is a part of the British Empire who is the oppressor of the Burmese people. Orwell does show sympathy of native people of Burma but he cannot do anything else to change the minds of the British Empire. Afterwards, he comes to the point where he has to make an unwanted decision of shooting an elephant due to the pressure of the Burmese People and also Orwell himself did not want to lose his pride to the native people of the Burma. Throughout the essay, George Orwell has used several symbols effectively such as, the
Recently, a British Police Officer was called upon to attend to an escaped elephant in Moulmein (Lower Burma). During his rampage, the creature trample a hut, multiple vendor stands in the bazaar, and trampled a rubbish van. The officer set off on his mission, taking information from locals about the elephant’s wherebeing. Seconds before he located the animal a group of children ran by and shouts of anguish where heard. As he rounded the corner the officer found that the elephant had trampled a coolie. He says, “He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony,” (Shooting an Elephant). After
The best course of action, Orwell decides, would be to approach the elephant and see how it responds, but to do this would be dangerous and might set Orwell up to be humiliated in front of the villagers. In order to avoid this unacceptable embarrassment, Orwell must kill the beast. He aims the gun where he thinks the elephant’s brain is. Orwell fires, and the crowd erupts in excitement. The elephant sinks to its knees and begins to drool. Orwell fires again, and the elephant’s appearance worsens, but it does not collapse. After a third shot, the elephant trumpets and falls, rattling the ground where it lands.
Shooting an Elephant is a great short story about how a police officer has to face peer pressure from locals that want him to shoot an elephant. The story begins in Moulmein, which is in lower Burma. The police officer, sent there by the British Empire, is hated by many of the local Burmese people. Mainly because he is European and the locals do not like Europeans. However, he is secretly against the British and with the Burmese, but no one knows that. The police officer also has a problem with people making fun of him and to him he cannot be insulted.
Throughout Orwell’s literary career, he avidly stood against totalitarian and imperialistic forms of government. His two most famous works (1984 and Animal Farm) both exemplify this point, but at the same time weaken it. These two works were written in protest of those governments, but in a fictional back ground. In Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant, he uses a personal experience to more clearly emphasize the impact of imperialism at the sociological and psychological level, in conjunction with other literary elements. This symposium of devices help drive the purpose of his paper and ultimately creates a more substantial impact on any reader.
In the essay, "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, the narrative includes almost no dialogue. Orwell 's voice as narrator is the only one readers hear. Orwell appears to have needed to empathize the inner conflict experienced by the narrator, who does not really want to shoot the elephant but feels compelled to do so to "avoid looking a fool." Ultimately, the requests and rationale of the government constrain individuals to act against their own ethical compasses.
...he elephant, and the elephant, who painfully dies, focuses the reader's attention on the suffering that imperialism causes for both parties. If the shooting was justified, Orwell's argument would have been immensely weakened.
Shooting an Elephant” is an autobiographically influenced short story written by George Orwell and published in 1936. It deals with the inner conflict of an imperial police officer in Burma who feels pressured by the Burmese and forced to kill an outraged elephant in order to prove himself and his status as an imperial police officer.