Essay Comparing The Lottery And Shooting An Elephant

Every hunter proceeded with the utmost caution. When an elephant was spotted, everyone stayed back as one of the lead hunters, Arumba, stepped up to take aim at the elephant. The first time, he was unsuccessful because the elephant galloped away right before he had a chance to strike, it took a few more hours to re-track the creature. When it was spotted again Arumba crept up with great stealth and ease and struck the elephant with the spear. Arumba's spear entered deep into the side of it's target. The elephant let out a screech of pain and galloped off again. The Mbuti hunters then followed the blood trail of the wounded elephant and waited for it to die. They followed this particular elephant for approximately two hours before it stopped running. Word was sent back to camp that an elephant was wounded and that they should be ready to move very soon. Later, the elephant was found again, swaying on it's feet fighting to stay alive. One of the hunters through a stick and hit the elephant in the head, it simply let out a yell, but did not move. "This animal is dead," said one of the hunters. They soon approached it and jabbed it lightly with the spear once more, it didn't even budge.

“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell, first published in the journal New Writing in 1936. In this essay, the author tells his own story about when he was working as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.

He repeats over and again that he did not want to shoot the elephant. He confesses, “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to.” Orwell gives emotional reasons for being against the idea of shooting the animal and not rational. He generalizes all elephants to have a “preoccupied grandmotherly air” and compares the elephant to a cow. The writer uses the simile, “They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.” to explain the pressure he had from the crowd watching him. Orwell remarks that regardless of his decision to shoot the elephant, he cannot change the thinking of the public about him. Orwell was moved by the hefty crowd that followed him. He was left with no choice other than to shoot the elephant because that was what the crowd expected of him and this scene signifies the failure of imperialism which is the writer’s overall theme. The sentence, “I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East.” helps explain to the reader the real failure of imperialism. Orwell insists that although the white man in the East has power which is symbolized by the rifle, he is still not allowed to make use of it in accordance with his will. He is classifying imperialism as a hollow and futile way of governance. The Englishmen

over what happens around me. I only have control of myself and my reactions to

When the policeman decides to help the people of Moulmein, in lower Burma, he lets them believe his gun is going to be used to shoot the elephant, because of the presser the crowd puts on him. The protagonist struggles throughout life due to the fact that most people despise him. The text states that, “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,” (17). The people have the authority over the hatred that is directed towards the protagonist. They control if he is accepted or outcasted. The policeman was looking for a way not to be hated, so he decides to help with chaos that the elephant has created. He grabs his gun and then is confronted with a crowd that normally would have no interest in him. For example, “They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant,” (19). The magical rifle in his hands makes him seem worth paying attention to. This is because the policeman can shoot the elephant and give the people what they want. The protagonist was not intending to shoot the elephant so, he did not tell the crowd that he was going to use the rifle for protection. This may be because, he was looking for a

involving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he can

Killing the elephant while it is peacefully eating grass symbolized the barbarity of colonialism as a whole. For instance, China was “peacefully eating grass” on its own, until the conquerors invade it and ripped the peace away.

THESIS: Although Orwell is justified, legally shooting the elephant is wrong because, the elephants “must” period was over, the way the animal was shot caused the animal to suffer, and Orwell violated his own beliefs because of peer pressure.

The story “Shooting an Elephant” is told by an ongoing and first person narrator, who was committed to events he was faced with and obtained insight and wisdom from these adventures even though he struggled internally and externally.

The way I came to that conclusion is that he is a European officer in a country that was conquered by Britain. The officer does not want to make the British people look weak and like fools. He also thought that, “every white mans life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at” (Orwell 725). This is because he hated his officer job and wants to be treated with more respect. Also at the end of the story when the officer thinks, “I had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool” (Orwell 727). The officer is now looking back and thinking if his diction to kill the elephant

In conclusion George Orwell essay “ Shooting An Elephant” expresses through his language that pride was something that pushed him to pull the trigger even though if it had been him alone he would have never pulled it.  He also showed  through his use of colour language and imagery the regret he feels for shooting the

Elephants have been victims of not just the incessant poaching but also of the civil wars; ultimately making them to fight back. The killing case have gone over the roof, as the “singular perversity” (Siebert 353) of the attacks. In India, “nearly one thousand people have been killed by elephants between 2000 and 2004” (Siebert 353). Several frequent attacks were recorded in Africa and other villages where the denizens were forced to evacuate their houses. ‘nearly one thousand’ which accentuates the gravity of the situation in 4 years had gained a lot of attention from the elephants researchers. Seibert’s prime third perspective, Gay Bradshaw, Oregon State psychologist, claims that that “everybody pretty much agrees that the relationship between elephants and people has dramatically changed” (Siebert 353). The choice of diction ‘dramatically’ indicates that elephants are not being violent towards human beings but they are also doing it intentionally. Dramatic behavior changes over the years are now being explained in the elephants. “Bradshaw and several colleagues argued that today’s elephant populations are suffering from a form of chronic stress, a kind of species-wide trauma” (Siebert 354), due to “decades of poaching and habitat loss” (Siebert 354). Elephants are becoming more destructive and Bradshaw looked into combining “traditional research into elephant behavior with insights about trauma drawn from

Some people may say that having control over someone or something can bring satisfaction and a sense of power. In the an article called “Gunman Kills Himself After Hostage Drama (584)” written by Charles P. Wallace and Tim Waters loss of control and the feeling of being helplessness makes Robert B. Rose commit a last act of asserting control over himself. In another article written by Martin E.P. Seligman called “On Learned Helplessness (585)” the feeling of loosing control of oneself is something that can cause someone to do things that they thought they would never do. What is hard to understand is that some of the things the someone may commit may implicate the lives of others in a negative way and the ending result could be death.

Humans desire to have control over the many things which affect them. Being unable to control something, especially something which can cause damage and

I believe that control is merely an illusion that we like to believe we have. In one of Dr. Caulder's sessions with Ethan, the guards are asked to leave and soon Dr. Caulder is held captive by Ethan and is demanded to write down what he has lost. Dr. Caulder answers “control” but Ethan says no and asks a few more times. Finally realizing what Ethan is talking about, Dr. Caulder writes down “illusion.”Ethan then explains how we only have the illusion of having