Essay on Book Report on George Orwell's Burmese Days

When Orwell was describing the burmese, he wrote “ the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves”. In term of pathos, he uses language in a disgusting way and makes it known that he hates and cannot stand it where he’s at. In the documentary, there’s the positive side of spreading values, prosperity and peace and in a way, imperialism. However, even though this rhetorical piece doesn’t directly relate to the documentary, this is the negative side of Imperialism and how it can impact even the oppressor. Also, in the documentary, it just talks about spreading democracy but what we are blinded to is what happens behind. When America goes into another country to spread democracy, we rarely pay attention to what happens there or what they are actually doing there. There is less care and attention to what goes on behind than compared to attention towards the surface of spreading democracy. Not only that but, also in the text, George Orwell faced continuous mockery and embarrassment in Burma and that resulted in bad suffering for him. In Burma, even as the oppressor, he faced a constant struggle to maintain his power and his authority in front of the Burmese. As a oppressor, one would expect them to have the power and be able to maintain authority in another country but in this text, there is the opposite that is very unexpected. Overall, George Orwell’s experience in Burma represented the other side of Imperialism, which was even the one governing is affected as much as the one who is getting

The first portion of Orwell’s piece is filled with his hatred for imperialism and the “evil-spirited little beasts” (para. 2) that torment him. Orwell hated the imperialism in Burma and “those who tried to make [his] job impossible” (para. 2). You can see his true anger and hatred when he uses diction like “petty”, “sneering”, “wretched”, “intolerable”, and “rage” (para. 1,2) when he’s describing some of his encounters in Burma. Most of all, Orwell just wanted to be liked and respected. He is tired of being punished for the actions of the British empire. He states that like “every white man,.. in the East” (para. 7) he was just living “one long struggle [to] not be laughed at” (para. 7). Orwell’s change in tone forces a change in the reader’s perception of the situation. When he shifts from enraged hatred and hostility towards the eastern world to a desperate want to be liked by the burmans, the reader also has a shift. They go from not only despising imperialism but

The victims are the burmese people and not orwell because while orwell was indeed “hated...jeered at…” and also “targeted.. as a police officer” (page1), the burmese people faced even harsher treatment than just being hated. The burmese people faced physical punishment and were even treated badly. They were “huddled in stinking cages” and even “flogged with bamboos” (page 1) which obviously shows them to be treated worse than how they treated orwell since the most they could do to him was trip him.

The animals of Orwell’s novels often represent a much less clear-cut purpose than those of his reflections in Burma. Here the animals are fully symbolic, and appear not initially for accuracy of events, but to specifically bring meaning and significance to human plight or human interaction. Although Orwell invokes this animal symbolism in his earlier novels including Burmese Days, Orwell’s use of the nature of animals for political understanding and motivation is best seen in his last two novels, 1984 and Animal Farm.

Orwell portrays the vengeful feelings of the Burmese people, the colonized, towards British People, the conqueror. As he has worked as a British officer in Burma, he knows how the natives feel about the British. Of course, it was obvious that the Burmese did not welcome any kind of British presence, including Orwell himself. The Occidentals were extremely mistreated, such as being jeered, and the narrator understood that anti-European feeling was very “bitter” (Orwell, 313). He needed to deal adequately with the native society, even though he was a target of bullying. For instance, he used to get ripped up on the football field, ignored by the referee and mocked by the crowd (Orwell, 313). Hence, he is a victim of the natives’ behavior. Not only is he the target of the native’s behavior, but he is also the victim of the imperial system.

Orwell?s extraordinary style is never displayed better than through the metaphors he uses in this essay. He expresses his conflicting views regarding imperialism through three examples of oppression: by his country, by the Burmese, and by himself on the Burmese. Oppression is shown by Orwell through the burden of servitude placed upon him by England: Orwell himself, against his will, has oppressed many. British Imperialism dominated not only Burma, but also other countries that did not belong to England. At the time it may appear, from the outside, he shows us that the officers were helping the Burmese because they too were against oppressors; however, from the inside he demonstrates that they too were trying to annex other countries. Though Orwell?s handling of this subject is detailed, in the end, he subtly condemns imperialism. Orwell finds himself in a moral predicament no different than the ones placed on the white men in the East. He justifies his actions, driven by the instigation of the Burmese. Orwell also feels forced by the natives to kill the elephant, hindering his

The first rhetorical strategy that Orwell utilizes in his essay is his personal experiences of imperialism in Burma in order to appeal to ethos and show the audience that he has witnessed the repercussions of imperialism. Orwell first showcases his hatred towards imperialism by stating “The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans” (Orwell 1). By showing that the native people were

As society has progressed, the evolution of imperialism has come to a point where people see it has pure history. It has vanished from our daily lives as we have not recently witness a country trying to dominate another. In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, we are able to envision the lives of the Burmese as they were involuntarily controlled by the British. In the early 1900’s we are told a true story of Orwell himself where he was once established in Burma was apart of his military service. During his service, he describes his living situation by noting that the army as well as himself were not appreciated. He mentions, “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.”(1) One day he

Beyond the use of metaphorical techniques, Orwell also uses vivid imagery to the strongest extent, to further his stand against the imperial forces. Under the oppression of British imperialism, the Burmese people become “wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts” (Orwell 285). Orwell applies

Orwell sets a mood of resentment in the exposition by revealing the animosity felt by the natives about foreign rule. He starts off the story stating, “IN MOULMEIN, IN LOWER BURMA, 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 1). In the first sentence of the story, Orwell reveals the negative mood and setting, which signifies their utmost importance. This bitter aura shows that Orwell is unpopular with the natives, and tensions between them runs high. In fact these feelings are so detrimental to Orwell, he almost goes insane.

Each shot that occurs after also contain colourful uses of language, “ Climbed with desperate slowness to his feet “ (Orwell 114)  while reading this it evokes deep emotions like Orwell wants the reader to feel sorry for the animal and for the reader to feel his regret in his decisions. “ the tortured breathing continued without a pause”( Orwell 115) he says this after his attempts to end the elephants suffering this bring in imagery of the pain that elephant must've been feeling at the moment. After realizing that there was nothing else that he could do “ In the end i could not stand it any longer and went away” ( Orwell 115) he feels truly upset at the site of the dying elephant and there is no longer anything he can do to ease its passing, he leaves unable to look at it anymore. This shows how George Orwell feels regret over his actions that he can no longer watch the animal slowly and painfully due.

Britain owned many colonies throughout the 1800’s including Burma. While the British were able to manufacturing raw materials from Burma until the early 1900’s, British Imperialism would forever influence the Burmese Natives. In George Orwell book “Burmese Days,” racism is one example of this British Imperialism influence. British Imperialism allowed the use of racism to influence the European Club members and British military. Some British authority used racism to diminish the natives, which Ellis, a timber merchant, demonstrated. Then, superiority ranking and separation started amongst the natives themselves, which U Po Kyin and Ma Hai Mary sought to achieve. Then Ellis and the European Club members pressured Flory

Through the essay, with the use of particular emotional words and sentences, the audience can perceive Orwell’s feelings and emotions, by the memorable amount of pathos over his essay. Orwell goes on describing the cruel reality the Burmese people lived in by describing, with the use of dramatic and lively words, the terrible situations, and consequences of Imperialism. Giving more reasons for his logos, Orwell at the same time uses pathos to emotionally involve

Despite his support for the Burmese, Orwell endured their overwhelming bitterness and hatred because of his British heritage: "the sneering faces . . . of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me . . got badly on my nerves" (p.3). Orwell sums up his feelings of guilt, coupled with his reaction against being hated: "All I knew was that 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" (4). Although part of him saw the British Raj as tyrannical, "with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts" (4). Orwell rationalizes his rage saying, "Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism" (4). Orwell realizes that tyrannical imperialism works against both the imperialists and the natives.

Burmese Days by George Orwell is not a book that commonly comes to mind when one thinks '"'Orwell'"' but nevertheless it holds a distinguished place in his career as a writer. The novel revolves around the lives of a handful of high-class English gentlemen living in Burma during the time of the British colonial period. The story focuses on one man in particular; John Flory, who gradually succumbs to his life of loneliness and boredom. Though a '"'pukka sahib'"' or