Rhetorical Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” reveals the epiphanic event he experiences in Moulmein, Burma. It highlights the guilt and rage he feels for being trapped as a British police officer in the British-conquered country. Orwell’s purpose is to write an absolute anti-colonial piece of literature and clarify his struggle of going against the oppressors. He does this in order to expose the sufferings that he tolerates there. Rhetorically, Orwell narrates and depicts various literary elements which hint to an ironic representation – his hatred towards imperialism and he himself being a puppet of the tyrants. Orwell succeeds to persuade the audience about the negative affect of imperialism with an intense description of shooting the elephant and his emotional appeal to readers. In his narration, Orwell solidifies his claims with well put rhetorical strategies. He appeals to the audience by using carefully constructed anecdotes. The most important anecdote is shooting of the elephant itself. The dramatic event gives readers different points of view on the …show more content…

His way of constructing sentences is just about philosophical and noting the obvious sarcasm and symbolism is not hard. Orwell uses specific detail to describe his feelings of having to shoot the elephant. The descriptive writing makes his essay visually attractive because he is clear and precise with his feelings. Orwell’s formation of imagery is greatly plat-formed to make readers relate in some way to his experience. Also, his diction is purposefully made informal to achieve emotional appeal. The narrator’s tension with the Burmese could not be more assured as he says he hates his job “more bitterly than [he] can perhaps make clear” (Longman 146). With this, it’s obvious how concise Orwell likes his point to be. Essentially, Orwell masters the tone and choice of words for his essay to successfully express his opinions for