Internal And External Pressure In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

The white man’s burden is an idea that the white men have a job to take care of the uncivilized beings and develop them to be a more socially endowed race. Their belief that they are superior to the natives is where this is rooted. This idea excused racism and portrayed it as more of a positive element in our society, rather than the destructive mechanism that it actually is. It also caused white men to truly believe that they are better than any other race out there. In “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, the narrator’s brain is subconsciously imbedded with this notion. He claims to be opposed to imperialism and everything about it while also hating his job and the people associated with it. These two things cannot go hand in hand.

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.

“A story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes,” Orwell says this in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” that is in The Norton Mix textbook (273-74). Essays are hard, especially when you are assigned to work with people you believe may have not have anything in common with you. Many people find it difficult to write about themselves, which makes this assignment even more grueling. Four people, talking and writing, depending on each other for a grade, of course it will be grueling. No one wants to depend on others to do their part, but in this group things came together quite well in the end. Each of us wrote our own body paragraph, which we believe will be clear with the

In the essay, “Shooting an Elephant” , written by George Orwell, the protagonist, the narrator, is faced with a conflict of shooting or letting the violent elephant live. The narrator is a British policeman who is made fun of and disrespected by the locals in the village. The story opens up saying “In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people…. Was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so...nimble Burman tripped me up…” (Orwell 1) The elephant in this short story symbolizes the imperialistic British empire. The elephant soon starts to cause a riot and the narrator is prepared to kill it. When the time comes, and all the locals are watching, Orwell is stuck at a crossroad of what to do.

Shooting an Elephant is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man (Orwell) who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, much like the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He says that, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.

Staring down a gun barrel at one of the largest and most majestic animals can often times be extremely intimidating. One might be temped to do something they are normally uncomfortable with when an angry crowd is right behind you watching your every move. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell finds himself in the same situation having to make a drastic decision that normally he would not do. In Orwell’s essay, he is trying to inform his audience about the negative ways in which British Imperialism has on people involved.

Orwell next faces the moral dilemma of whether or not to shoot the elephant. At first, it is clear that he does not feel the internal urge to shoot the elephant: "It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him" (Orwell.525). However, Orwell's virtue becomes dwarfed as the Burmese's "two thousand wills [press him] forward"(524) to kill the elephant. At this point there is an obvious role reversal as the Burmese begin to strongly influence Orwells decisions. Because he constantly dwells on what the crowd will think of him he shoots the elephant. Thus submitting to the will of the people and committing the immoral deed of abandoning ones own conscious because of the pressure of others.

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

What is perceived as good and bad? Every person has a different standard of behavior or beliefs concerning what are and are not acceptable for them to do or morals. These morals are the base of how a person acts in a society. Morality plays a huge role in decision-making; people should never disregard their ethical and moral beliefs solely to justify societal expectations. Morals are what make an individual. We should not have to do something just because society says it is the right thing to do because we believe in actions and activities being right and wrong.

Have you ever been pressured into doing something you didn’t want to, but felt like you had no other option? The narrator in Orwell's, “Shooting an Elephant” had a very similar experience. He was pressed by the Burmese into committing a senseless killing that he did not deem necessary. This transformation of the main characters mentality and morals gives the audience a terrific example of characterization, which would not be possible without the effective use of point of view in Orwell's story.

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.

George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is a story about the experience of the narrator who was asked to shoot a wild elephant. He was a police officer who worked for British imperialists and killing the elephant would help him receive good judgement from the villagers in Burma. Orwell says that imperialism is evil and should be eliminated while others think that it is good for the public. The purpose of Orwell’s story is to show the audience that imperialism is harmful and not as good as people think. Orwell uses various literary techniques to show the irony of the whole situation. Orwell’s tone is very blunt and outspoken. He convinces the audience that imperialism has a negative impact on those being governed under the imperialist’s power by using his background, ethos, pathos, and imagery.

Imagine being placed in a situation that holds the fate of a breathing elephant, the largest land animal in the world. Would you spare its life or begin the end of it in a blink of an eye? In Eric Arthur Blair’s essay Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell, arguably Blair himself, was once confronted with this very question. As an English police officer in Burma during the Age of Imperialism, Orwell was called upon to investigate an aggressive elephant that was ravaging a local bazaar and later discovered, even killed a man. When he finally located the mammal, “at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow” (Orwell 2). Orwell’s immediate thoughts were that he ought not to shoot the creature “I had no intention of shooting the elephant--I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary” (2). However, Orwell’s initial thoughts would not be put into action. Orwell would later go on to kill the elephant with three shots aimed at the brain as over two thousand native people

George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" portrays demanding situations as the leading cause of people desperately attempting, disregarding what is right or wrong, to save their egos from social criticism. More specifically, by saying that he was "an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind," Orwell argues that his actions felt predetermined by the will of the Burmese and that, just as he had done, humanity's fear of defying expected social roles causes people to contradict socially conscious behavior, leading to a variety of negative consequences, many of them being inhumane. Although there are minor cases in which people exert their free will and act of their own accord regardless of pressure they are under,