Analysis Of George Orwell 's ' Shooting An Elephant '

As a European white man in the British colony of India, George Orwell, in his narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, describes one of his most memorable events while living in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma. Orwell’s purpose is to share the absolute horror of living in imperialism. He adopts a tense tone throughout his essay by using vivid description and gruesome imagery in order to relate the incident with the elephant to what it is like to live in imperialism.

In the very first paragraph of the story the character tells of his experience on a football field. He stated that “when 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 1). The character also recounts of other experiences he has where “insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance” (Orwell 1). In his own words the character describes how he feels about these situations. He states how the Burman’s actions badly got on his nerves. He explains how overwhelming and upsetting his job makes him, so much so that he wants to quit. It is important to note the characters perception of the Burmese because it shows that his rancor towards them does not affect his longing for respect. This is a basic point that helps set up the story to show what the characters

To start off, many ideas were seen throughout the movie that could be related back to real historical events that took place. One of which, is racism and how one race considers itself superior and that the others need help in fixing themselves. For example, “ Go bind your sons to exile, to serve your captives' need; To wait in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild” (Kipling 3-4). The poem white man’s burden argues for imperialism and its advantages that is obtained throughout the process. The author views imperialism as an opportunity to help the ones that are not as powerful as its own country. This relates back to history, as the Europeans consider themselves the greatest and try to control parts of Africa. To add on, In the movie Avatar, the dialogues are chosen to show the natives attitude towards the other country and vise versa. “We have tried to teach other Skypeople. It is hard to fill a cup that is already full” (Avatar). This is an example of viewing the outsider’s as uncivilized, and not having the ability to learn and experience new ideas.

George Orwell began the essay with his perspective on British domination. He stated that it is evil and alongside of that it is oppressive. He felt hatred and guilt toward himself and the Burmese people. The people of Burma did not feel threatened because the narrator of the story had killed the elephant. The Burmese people have lost their dignity and integrity while trying to fight off the British imperialism. Orwell uses allegories to describe his experience of the British imperialism and he had his own view of the matter of slaying the elephant. He successfully used ethos, pathos, and logos by attracting the audience to read his story. He had to make a scene in the story to make the people of Burma feel the same emotion. The elephant was the one reason why it makes this story emotional. He used logos to show that he can kill the elephant even if he does not want to so that it does not make him look fool.

George Orwell who wrote a narrative essay Shooting an Elephant” has a tense tone of literature towards his life. He is using a stressed tone due to peer pressure, and lack of confidence toward himself as he is an imperialist who came to protect uphold the laws. He's difficult attitude sets the scene for the story in his eyes. Throughout the story the concept of his decisions and action will be projected through the uses of diction; the write words to express his feelings.

and disrupting the little bit of peace that they have. So in that instant he

Story is about a Burma village where an elephant got loose and wreaked havoc on the town and kills a villager (a man). George Orwell is the sheriff and ultimately makes the choice to kill the elephant.

A renowned novelist and former imperial policeman, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant (1936), addresses the problems of imperialism. He argues that imperializing others, specifically Burma, will force the colonists to lose their own conscience and freedom. Orwell utilizes a variety of rhetorical elements throughout his essay to help bolster his claim. Firstly, Orwell uses first person perspective to showcase his experiences in order to establish his credibility. He then uses word choice to indicate his imperialistic sentiments and emotions. Lastly, he uses imagery to portray the pressure and emotions that were elicited while shooting the elephant. The purpose of Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant is to inform the reader about the inherent struggles that are engendered by imperialism. Orwell adopts a critical, subjective tone for his audience, the readers of his essay, anti-imperialists, and scholars studying imperialism.

In history, colonization was a truly popular tradition practiced by great and powerful empires in order to extract and retrieve all materials necessary to support their homeland. However, in order to achieve such sense of commerce and well-being, those colonists who had the power, had to colonize weaker and far less advanced societies. Great powers such as Britain and France would then travel to these societies and implement their rule in order to gain prosperity. Some, those who benefited from colonization, felt that the practice of colonization was an obligation to better the “uncivilized,” societies and help them advance, but the emotional and physical hurt that came from colonizing outweighed the positive aspects. The intention was good, but the manner in which colonization was carried out was poor. This topic is immensely controversial that pieces such as Kipling’s poem, “A White Man’s Burden,” and Achebe’s “Things Fall Apart,” have been written in order to support or go against colonization. But despite much debate, colonization has been a tradition that has caused those regions being colonized much struggle and negativity.

In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell achieves two achievements : he shows us his personal experience and his expression while he was in Burma; he use the metaphor of the elephant to explain to describe what Burma looked like when it was under the British Imperialism. The special about this essay is that Orwell tells us a story not only to see the experience that he had in Burma; he also perfectly uses the metaphor of the elephant to give us deep information about the Imperialism. By going through this essay, we can deeply understand what he thinks in his head. He successfully uses the word choices and the sentences to express his feeling. By reading this essay, Orwell succeeds us with his mesmerizing sentences and shows us the

People often do favors to please others, even if it means a loss of dignity. George Orwell’s short story, “Shooting an Elephant”, is an ideal example. In the story, Orwell, the main character, works as a policeman in Burma in the 1930s for the British Empire. One day, an elephant tramples loose, and although Orwell has no intent on shooting the elephant, a mob of native Burmese pressures Orwell to shoot the elephant. He reluctantly acquiesces to prevent being humiliated. After that experience, Orwell writes “Shooting an Elephant” to demonstrate native resentment of the British through mood, to reveal the tyranny of imperialism and its effects on the natives through imagery, and to informs the reality of the natives manipulating the British through foreboding diction. All of these purposes support Orwell’s ultimate purpose of ending imperialism and colonization.

When you know that everyone wants you to do something and their will is pushing yours, even if you feel like what they want done isn't what you believe should be done. This is the problem that George Orwell faced, he was pushed by a crowd to kill the the elephant even though he felt it was wrong.  The essay shows through the language that Orwell uses that his pride pushed him to kill the elephant and the deep regret he feels afterwards.

In the essay “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell recounts his experiences as a British police officer in the British Raj during the 1930s and 40s. During this time period, Great Britain controlled most of South Asia, including the Burman village where Orwell was stationed. He describes the futility of imperialism for both parties involved, directing his experiences to the European audiences of the time. This is meant to provide perspective towards the consequences of European imperialism and internal struggle which Orwell and the British Empire both face. The act of imperialism restricts both the conqueror and the conquered from true freedom and is pointless due to the resistance and morality of human nature.

How unfree lots of people are and compares to others and how lucky some people are.Shows that whites still want to change people because of the color of their skin. They justify themself saying they're doing the right thing when they’re doing the wrong thing. It shows that the hutu were liked better because they were lighter and taller than tusi. It caused so many problems like genocide and the other countries won’t help them because they think they are dirt and don't need it. Then the good military was forced to leave because they were white and all blacks had to stay unprotected to die because they were black. Most of them survived because they got out passed the tutsi rebels so they look down upon whites because they have no respect for human nature. “Take up the white man’s burden The savage wars of peace” ( White man’s burden author unknown). The White man's burden tells us how the whites treated black people and how they had to make them think there lower than you so you could fix what’s wrong with them. We found many different point of the poem trying to figure out if it’s real or if it’s sarcastic and it really doesn’t matter all the important is you take away what the did to black people.

In 1936, George Orwell published his short story ‘Shooting an elephant’ in an English magazine. Since then, it has been republished dozens of times and holds a place as a definitive anti-colonial piece of literature, in an era where the British Empire was at its peak and covered almost 1/3 of the Earth’s surface. George Orwell believed that “…imperialism was an evil thing...” and uses much themes, symbolism and irony to convey his strong anti-colonialist feelings.