Peer pressure and acts of mass blind obedience are all too common occurrences in our everyday society. A person, who under any other circumstances would never act in such a way, will commit unthinkable acts when backed by a single person or even worse, a large mass of individuals. It’s almost always destructive, and the person or persons involved usually always end up feeling regretful and bewildered by their actions. When thinking about group peer pressure, there are several other words that come to mind such as; conformity, compliance, brainwashing and social influence. Group peer pressure can make a person with the purest morals and the highest values act in ways that are more than contradictory. Group peer pressure can turn a saint into a sinner, a leader to a follower, and an individual to a tiny speck in a large and corrupt mass.
This pressure is evident in the story titled “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. In this selection, originally taken from a collection of essays under the same title, Orwell describes an incident where group peer pressure led him to commit the inhumane killing of an elephant. Orwell, who was serving as a member of the British Imperial Police in Lower Burma, is required to kill this animal after it came into “must” and ran rampant throughout the village. While some may argue that the killing was justified given the elephant had already violently destroyed property and killed one villager, Orwell still felt some degree of shame and regret over the incident. He states in the text of the people of Lower Burma:
They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant a...
... middle of paper ...
...wn life, peer pressure plays an enormous role in everyday society. People do unimaginable things when pressure is put on them by people that they admire. We comply and conform when brainwashed, influenced, and pressured. It creates huge and destructive problems and moral struggles as seen with Orwell, the victims of Jonestown, and the thousands of teens that fall prey to peer pressure everyday. The only way to combat peer pressure is for others to start being accountable for their own actions and for integrity to become a higher priority in day-to-day life. If society can begin to teach our youth this then we will be one step closer to eliminating the problem; however, complete elimination of peer pressure can only come when adolescents and adults alike stop being the problem, and start becoming the solution by resisting the urge to pressure and be pressured.
One should remember that not all peer pressure is bad, although that is mostly what you see today. Good peer pressure needs to be done more, because why would you want to make someone do something bad, instead of helping them do something good and impacting them, because honestly who would want a worse world rather than a better one? Truly the way to improve our lives as human beings lies on peer pressure, it is at the core of ways we can make a change for a better, and not more for the
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” by George Orwell demonstrates one man's moralistic battle between his own belief of preservation of life against that of the crowd of natives which spur him to kill the beast. The author is incited in his actions by the large, unanimous crowd looming eagerly behind him. The sheer size of the group of Burmese natives can create an illusion of strength in numbers that can be hard to fight. The author knew, on one hand, that the conclusion to shoot the beast is immoral, however, from a social standpoint, agreement with the group meant survival in their territory. Failure to comply with what is expected could result in punishment in the form of embarrassment. The author writes “to come all that way, rifle in ...
In 1692 many people died during the Salem witch trials; which were in effected greatly by peer pressure. It started off when the girls of Salem ran off into the night and went dancing in the forest. Then when the girls were caught some of the older girls threatened others and some just had great influence on others. For instance, Abigail started accusing random women of witchcraft and the other girls did it to, just for the excitement. Peer pressure can lead to all sorts of behavior.
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.
Peer pressure is something that every teen goes through especially during high school. My definition of peer pressure is someone pressuring you to do something you might not consider doing. But in this occasion George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” is a ideal example of peer pressure. In this essay Orwell is being pressured by a group of Burmese to kill an elephant which Orwell didn’t want to
Peer pressure is doing something that is not quite normal, but your friends pressure you into the situation because they do it. This definition of peer pressure is something that is always happening, especially with the world changing each day. Things like tobacco, alcohol, and drugs, are all possibilities that peer pressure is related to. However, in the texts “Shooting and Elephant” by George Orwell and “No Witchcraft for Sale” by Doris Lessing demonstrate peer pressure among many thing; however, there are many solutions resulting in good things compared to the bad things that have happened. Solutions to peer pressure in these texts could be many things, but the three that would work best would be: ignore the person, walk away, and lastly, know that you should not do anything you do not feel comfortable with.
Society is an intricate system that entails numerous factors to an individual’s growth as a person. These factors can range from simplistic to complex; a child’s upbringing in a particular neighborhood to a person determining a meticulous career. Both of those situations adhere to the ideology of human interaction and communication. Human interaction and communication can lead to events that place humans in the midst of peer pressure; this idea of peer pressure will play a contributing part for all humans and certainly can override a person’s moral beliefs. To ascertain the strength of peer pressure on humans, numerous experiments were conducted that placed humans in undesirable situations along with historical events that apply to peer pressure.
Peer pressure is the influence from members of one’s peer group. Peer pressure affect many school aged children, and teenager, because of the desire to want to fit in. Affects of giving into peer pressure can lead to taking drugs, drinking alcohol, and having sex. By researching
... instead of following the majority. The issue of peer pressure can relate to teens, as they are in constant pressure to be ‘cool’ or to be in the ‘in’ group. It does not really promote individualism, so people cannot develop their own ideas but rather follow the leader of their group.
“Why fit in when you were born to stand out?” (Dr.Seuss). Society often thinks of peer pressure as a negative implement. Often times the community imagines peer pressure as teen influencing one another to experiment with drugs, alcohol, and sexual intercourse. But really all peer pressure is, is the encouragement of changing values and behaviors of an individual. Peer pressure can be thought of as positive for teens, because it allows and individual to become a leader in an environment, strong encouragement to work hard in school, and lead a healthy lifestyle.
The use of guns is to control the natives. In this suburb in Burma, only the British own and possess the guns, “The Burmese population has no weapon” (324) thus, is this which enable the British to appear as demi-gods toward the Burmese and rule over them. Also, the rifle represents the brute force which is at the disposition of the colonial British ruler. “I took my rifle…much too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might be useful in terrorem” (324). This illustrates the dominance of the British Empire over the Burmese. The narrator uses the rifle for self-defense, “I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if is necessary” (326). When he kills the elephant it functions as a tool for violence. In addition, the rifle represents those people who easily follow the majority beliefs, but when the Burmese exhort Orwell to kill the elephant it deviates to a weapon “like a mad dog” (330). Then, the change of the rifle is not voluntary- it is rather dependent on circumstances, “I sent an orderly to a friend’s house nearby to borrow an elephant rifle” (325). Thus, Orwell shows how peer pressure occurs and proves relevance by stating how the Burmese pushed him into shooting the elephant. This is the result that peer pressure occurs. Additionally, Orwell warns of the repercussions of yielding to majority power by demonstrating the tragic fate of the rifle. The elephant is killed by
Everyone at one point or another has desire to fit into a group, whether it is friends, or something else. This is in our nature and this is what makes us humans. In whatever group they are, they wanna feel secure and have a sense of belonging to that group. But what if one’s so called friend betrays the individual or start doing things which are wrong and force the person to do it with them? This is what negative peer pressure is - trying to mess with the minds and forcing them to be an acquaintance with something which is illegal and wrong.
The first point I want to make in this speech is that peer pressure is NOT a bad thing. We all are influenced by our peers, both negatively and positively. It helps define who we are and how we feel about subjects in our lives. It is how we chose to react to peer pressure that defines who we are as an individual. Are we a leader or a follower? Both types of people are needed to make the world go round.
Peer pressure is when we are influenced to do something we normally wouldn't do because we want to fit in with other people or be accepted by our peers (A peer is someone you look up to like a friend, someone in the community or even someone on TV).