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Recommended: Shoot an elephant
What is really important to you; that keeps you safe, that protects you? What if that was taken away from you forever? If we as humans, for example, didn’t have our teeth and were to try to live without them in the wilderness, we would likely not survive. This is what happens to animals in our world when their tools for survival are taken from them by poachers. Poachers use a wide variety of ways to hunt for ivory. When they hunt for it they mostly hunt for elephants. Elephant poaching is a terrible thing. It would be very difficult for them to keep breeding, if elephants go extinct our forests wouldn't survive, and their habitats would get wiped out. Elephants are like people, they have one baby at a time, but there’s a catch. Female elephants,
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.
After the Industrial Revolution, the act of stronger countries taking control of weaker countries became a common practice of colonization or Imperialism. When one think of “Imperialism” they might think of the country and the people that have been taken over. Their resources are being taken, their people are being mistreated so of course people will feel bad for the conquered countries. What people don't know is that imperialism is a double edge sword. In the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, we are shown Orwell's view on British's Imperialism, though the British empire found use in Imperialism, Orwell found faults and that it hurts the conqueror as much as it hurts the conquered.
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 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.
"Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency." Help Stop Rogue Wildlife-killing Agency. Centre for Biological Diversity, n.d. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
For a long time Asian ivory was used, because it was much easier to obtain, though the ivory was harder to shape, more likely to break, and less attractive. The Asian ivory came from tusks of elephants that were largely different from African elephants. For starters, they had a smaller build and differently shaped tusks. The African elephants had an average tusk size of about sixty pounds to the Asian elephant’s forty. The African elephants lived in the tropical jungles of Africa’s east coast, while the Asian elephant lived in a far different environment. As it happened, it was the African elephant that man desired but had a difficult time getting to Africa. Believing that the danger of a trip to Africa outweighed the potential profits of the voyage merchants and consumers settled for the lower quality ivory.
A form of government in which the ruler is an absolute dictator and the citizens only have a few rights and fear the government refers to despotic governments. At time the governments act from the same petty impulses such as those that drive human beings in response to pressures. In paragraph 3 of “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell implies this when he says that the incident of shooting the elephant “in a roundabout way was enlightening. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had before of the real nature of Imperialism - the real motive for which despotic governments act.” The government's responsibility is to ensure that its citizen's physiological needs and safety are met. But, at times the government acts out with petty impulses in response to pressure, just as human beings do at times, caused by all of the responsibility they have. Which causes the government to rule as tyrant which resulted from the petty impulses.
The human race has a seemingly impossible challenge before them. While many focus on huge social issues such as terrorism and world hunger, which are completely valid and important issues, many have forgotten about the state of humanity’s neighbors within our very planet. Earth is in the midst of its sixth great extinction, keyed as the Holocene Extinction after the current epoch the planet is in. The Holocene Extinction, starting between 9,000 and 13,000 years ago, is the most recent since the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, during which the dinosaurs were wiped out (Heymann, Chibante and Brooks). Such knowledge of our current ongoing mass extinction event is not well known among the common populace. The simple fact is that the human
Natural predators assist in maintaining this delicate balance by killing on the weakest and sickest animals. However, hunters kill healthy animals who they can find to satisfy their different needs including killing animals as a form of game, trophy or the famous poaching of animals for tusks. The poaching of elephants and rhinos for tusks worldwide is believed to have increased the number of animals without tusks in Africa (Whitfield, 2003). In the last 40 years in Canada, hunting has resulted in bighorn horns of sheep to fall by 25% (Whitfield, 2003). In case hunting of animals, especially poaching continues globally, the number of animal species will decrease rapidly, resulting in extinction of specific species, such as the African rhinos and elephants. A report in Nature Magazine suggests that the decrease of animals may have an effect on the population’s genetics because the weakest animals will pass weak genes to their offspring causing an entire species to have defects. Therefore, it is better for hunters to let nature kill off the weak and sick animals for the preservation of the
At present time Elephants have small ears to help them radiate the African heat. Elephants are in much need of water, they enjoy showering themselves by sucking water with their trunks and spraying it all over themselves because sometimes the heat can become really overwhelming, then they roll around dust to create a protective coat on their skin. Elephants today also use their trunks to eat their food. Another use their trunk for plucking leaves, but sometimes when they have to tear branches they hurt their trunk creating damage to the foliage. African Elephants eat around four hundred fifty kilograms (450) of vegetation per day. Their diet is grasses, fruit, and bark. The male African Elephant weighs around four thousand seven hundred kg to six thousand kilograms (4,700- 6,000). The female elephant weighs around two thousand a hundred sixty kg to three thousand two hundred thirty kg (2, 060- 3,030). Their scientific classification is Animalia, Chordata, Mammalia, Proboscidea, Elephantidae. The African elephant is one the largest mammals around this time, and it is an endangered species thanks to us humans for hunting
After the harsh criticism in my last draft of your story “The Shooting of an Elephant”, you have really improved the fluency of the writing and overall flow of the plot. I believe “The shooting of an elephant” portrays the values of power, morals and ethics. Throughout, you express these values with great success, which casts this story as an emotional one that touches upon some of the most influential themes that can be conveyed through narrative writing, amplified through manipulating the setting and language. Throughout your story, themes and ideas are exemplified well.
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
Cameroon, Chad, Mozambique and Congo are the primary countries being affected in South Africa from these anonymous poachers. From the year of 2000 to 2013, the rate of poaching has elongated from 6 to 946 and standing alone in 2012, over 668 rhinoceroses were shot dead in account of the SADEA. Although the staggering rates on poaching of rhinos for their horns seem have caught the attention of millions of individuals across the world, many people fail to realize the significant impact it has on the environment, and so does the Professor of Political Science at the University of North Dakota, William Montgomery.
...lled by poachers. Even the White Rhino population was hit hard because of poachers seeking their priceless horns. The Los Angeles Times reported that,” The world’s largest surviving population of white rhinos suffered its heaviest toll on record last year when poachers killed more than one- thousand of the threatened animals to feed an international market for trinkets and potions made from their horns” (Williams 1). According to the WWF, The population of the White Rhino has diminished to a mere twenty- thousand. The worst part is the rare tusks are being used for the most unbelievably useless products. The number of White Rhinos are so scarce that even the killing of one- thousand is a huge blow to the delicate and slowly increasing population. It is truly disappointing that such a majestic species is being sacrificed due to the high demand of their rare tusks.
The African elephant’s range has declined by over 50 percent since 1979 – and their populations are breaking up