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
The short story can be divided into two parts. In the first two paragraphs the narrator introduces himself and talks about his life and experience in working as a “sub-divisional police officer” in the town of Moulmein in Lower Burma. He also talks about his ambiguous attitude towards the Burmese people who ridicule and mock him because of anti-European feelings and towards the British Empire whose “dirty work” he now has to witness in his job. In the second part of the short story the narrator tells the readers about a specific incident, already indicated in the title of the story, which gave him a better understanding of imperialism and the way it works. One day in his service as an imperial police officer he is asked to stop an outraged elephant from ravaging the town and attacking the people. He takes along a rifle just in case he needs protection from the wild animal and starts on his way to find the elephant and see for himself what is happening. When a man is killed by the outraged elephant and the Burmese people follow the police officer on his way to the elephant he realizes that the Burmese expect him to shoot the elephant. He knows it would not be right to kill the animal because of its worth and because it has started to calm down and would be the tame, harmless animal it is used to be. But under the pressure of the crowd the police man does not see leaving the elephant alive as an option...
Orwell is able to effectively express his argument of the subliminal, but drastic impact that imperialism can have on a suppressed nation. Orwell achieves this by giving his readers many examples of the inhumane treatment he endured while in India. As an Imperial officer working for the British Imperial Empire, Orwell is deeply resented by all of the Burmese people in Lower Burma that are under his rule and protection. However, George states in his essay that instead of protecting the people of Burma he spent a vast majority of his time struggling not to be ridiculed or abused by the locals. George Orwell openly expresses his own frustration to his situation in his memoir; his obvious dislike "for the empire [he] served" (Orwell 282) and its imperialism oppression and his blatant "rage against evil-spirited little beasts" (282) who reciprocated his hatred because of his employment as a British officer in their home. However, it is because of Orwell's inability to choose between his British identity an...
In George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant, Orwell suggests just that; one can form his own ideals, but they will either be changed by the media (symbolized in his essay by the Burmese natives) or constructed from...
In George Orwell's essay "Shooting An Elephant," he writes about racial prejudice. Orwell is a British officer in Burma. The author is, "for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British"(842). Orwell feels caught in the middle of this cultural struggle. He sympathizes with the oppressed people of India, but is treated poorly, since he is viewed as one of the oppressors. He comes to terms with the role he plays in this vicious cycle of oppression , as an imperial servant, and the influence it has on him to shoot an elephant.
In 1922, Orwell began working as the assistant superintendent of police in Myaungmya, Burma, and this is where his hatred toward imperialism and its tyrannical rule over the underdogs in society developed. He felt guilty torturing and flogging unwilling subjects. The community had taken too much power over the individual, and the imperialist society commanded Orwell to enforce this injustice: “I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny…with another part I thought the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts. Feelings like these are normal by-products of imperialism” (qtd. in Lewis 41). Obviously, imperialism had affected Orwell to the point where he developed animosity towards the Burmese. As a policeman doing “the dirty work of the Empire” (qtd. in Lewis 41), Orwell acquired a hatred for imperialism, a belief that is focused on dominion over other individuals.
Orwell could not grow a liking for the oppressive British colonial rule in Burma, and felt ashamed of being a part of it. He was disturbed by the conflict of loyalties going on in his heart because of the fact that he was at once opposed to the dirty work of Imperialistic feelings, but could not express them properly. He loathed the tyrannous and oppressive rule of a handful of British on a large number of Burmese people. He belonged to the class of oppressors but had sympathy with the uneasiness of conscience made it difficult for him to continue in the service of Imperial Police. The native people's hatred for the British and the strong anti-English feeling and atmosphere in Burma created more difficulties for him. Ultimately, Orwell gave up his job in Burma, and left for England in August, 1927. In the `Autobiographical Note', he explains the reasons for having to leave this job thus: "I gave it up partly because the climate had ruined my health, partly because I already had vague ideas of writing b...
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.
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.
George Orwell uses setting, characterization and symbols to show that true power come from following the dictates of one’s conscience. The state of power established through the imperialistic backdrop show that Orwell should have control over the Burmese. Also, the perspective and ideas given by Orwell show his true character and lessens the overall power set up for him. Lastly, the symbols Orwell uses show representation of traditional forms of power, but take on different implications in the story. These points come together to prove that power exists within one’s self and not through one’s position, conquests or by the items they possess. In the end, it can be said that man’s journey for power will be a continuous struggle until the end of time but that in order at attain power, one must learn to listen to one’s conscience.
George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is a short story that not only shows cultural divides and how they affect our actions, but also how that cultural prejudice may also affect other parties, even if, in this story, that other party may only be an elephant. Orwell shows the play for power between the Burmese and the narrator, a white British police-officer. It shows the severe prejudice between the British who had claimed Burma, and the Burmese who held a deep resentment of the British occupation. Three messages, or three themes, from Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” are prejudice, cultural divide, and power.
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
Orwell experienced many difficulties in his field. First as a police officer in Burma he saw how brutally the people where being treated by the other police officers. He also wrote about his resignations that he had abo...
The glorious days of the imperial giants have passed, marking the death of the infamous and grandiose era of imperialism. George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant, deals with the evils of imperialism. The unjust shooting of an elephant in Orwell's story is the central focus from which Orwell builds his argument through the two dominant characters, the elephant and its executioner. The British officer, the executioner, acts as a symbol of the imperial country, while the elephant symbolizes the victim of imperialism. Together, the solider and the elephant turns this tragic anecdote into an attack on the institution of imperialism.
“Burmese Days” is set in 1920s Burma under British colonialism. It focuses on the imperialism of the British and its effects on the relationships between the British, the British and Indians, and between the Indians themselves. So negative is the portrayal by Orwell of imperialism that it can be seen as a novel without hope in terms of altering the imperialistic structure of the British rule in Burma. No character- British or Burmese- appears to be capable of escaping the destructive trap of imperialism. Orwell points out clearly his negative attitude on European politics at his times, for in his youth he was very much in favour of the Marxist ideology and so is the protagonist of the novel “Burmese Days”, John Flory. The novel concentrates on the town of Kyauktada in Upper Burma. Kyauktada is described as hot and sultry. It is a small town of about four thousand people. The overwhelming majority of the inhabitants are Burmese, but there are also a hundred Indians, two Eurasians, sixty Chinese, and Seven Europeans. Nevertheless, as in all imperialistic societies the small group of Europeans suppresses the great majority of the native people, who seem to accept perfectly the superiority of the white people. Orwell criticizes this feeling of inferiority the Europeans give the Burmans and especially the Eurasians, because for their existence the Europeans are even responsible. Although he seems very much in favour of the so-called inferior people, the novel gives a certain impression of the Asian character to the reader, which is not very likeable. The Asian people are described – and not only by the characters o...