Rhetorical Devices In 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.

George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’ (Orwel, 1936) represents a number of strangers being involved in a combined encounter. The situation throughout the essay represents the unjust British occupation of Burma, the hatred towards him as a British officer and the elephant symbolising the British. The part of the text chosen clearly exemplifies how a forced duty can lead to hatred. The text chosen displays that he is forced to encounter the Burmese people yet they despise him. Although the encounter with the Burmese improves with the arrival of the elephant, Orwell still has a sense of isolation. Throughout the text Orwell questions the presence of the British in the East exploring that the encounter with the Burmese should not have took place.

The story, written in first person, gives insight of the narrator’s thought process. It is well conveyed that Orwell is very unhappy with his current position and is working for something he doesn’t believe in, which allows his audience to feel sympathetic to his current situation. His dilemma is clearly presented- whether he should shoot the elephant or not- which provides a universal theme of a personal battle, to choose what one believes is right, or whether to conform with society. Ultimately, this provides an emotional connection between Orwell and the reader, as they can relate to the feeling, which gives them a better understanding of the story’s main point. The shooting of the elephant itself also provokes an emotional response from the audience, as Orwell employs the element of death in a powerful and symbolic way. It is well persuaded throughout the story that he believed the elephant did not deserve to die, and the death itself is portrayed as devastating to him..” (Orwell, 5). The remorseful tone in this ending sentence exposes to the audience that just because something appears to be socially acceptable does not mean in any way that it is right for us to do, in which this case, the guilt exposed to the reader illustrates the negative consequences of social

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.

“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, along with 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 states, 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.

Upon seeing the rifle, a huge crowd started to follow him. He had no intention to kill the elephant. However, the crowd was expecting him to shoot it. They did not want to kill it because it had destroyed the bazaar, but rather to enjoy the fun and to get the elephant meat. The crowd’s expectation leaves Orwell no choice but to shoot the elephant. He points out that he had to shoot it to “impress the ‘natives’” (7). If he had not done it, the crowd would have laugh at him, and it would hurt his pride as a white man living in the East. In the end, he decided to trigger the gun and shot the elephant.

The quest for power is one which has been etched into the minds of men throughout history. However, it can be said that true power is not a result of one’s actions but comes from the following one’s own beliefs without being influenced by others. This principle sets up the story for Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell. The protagonist, Orwell himself, is a sub divisional police officer in Burma, a British colony. Orwell must try to find and use his inner power when he is faced with the decision of whether or not to kill an elephant which has ravaged the Burman’s homes. The state of power established through the imperialistic backdrop show that Orwell, as a colonist, should be in control. As well, the perspective and ideas given by Orwell

In the essay ?Shooting an Elephant? by George Orwell, the author uses metaphors to represent his feelings on imperialism, the internal conflict between his personal morals, and his duty to his country. Orwell demonstrates his perspectives and feelings about imperialism.and its effects on his duty to the white man?s reputation. He seemingly blends his opinions and subjects into one, making the style of this essay generally very simple but also keeps it strong enough to merit numerous interpretations. Orwell expresses his conflicting views regarding imperialism throughout the essay by using three examples of oppression and by deliberatly using his introspection on

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.

George Orwell, author of, "Shooting an Elephant" gives detailed scenarios to help the audience discover different interpretations of his inner conflicts. He then connects his piece to historical events in India that involved the British empire, he does so by using symbolism in place of description in his story. Narration is used to aid in interpreting Orwell's inner conflicts throughout the story such as killing the elephant, his conflict with the Burmese people, and finally the imperialism Britain had over

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

In George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant”,George explores the complexities of imperialism–and how they are mutually pernicious to both people involved. He wrote, “A story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes.” The idea is demonstrated when he hunts down the elephant. Though the Burmese people warn him of the elephant’s rampage and tell him he’s in danger, he finally finds the elephant peacefully grazing–and it is an entirely different creature than what the people described to him.The idea is noteworthy to the essay because, on a prodigious scale, it uncovers the complex characters of imperialism.

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.

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

Orwell employs symbolism as a major literary technique, aiding our understanding of his stance against colonialism and our understanding of the setting. From the start, it is clear that he represents the modern, the western industrial English, at complete odds with the rural and primitive Burmese. It is believed that the focal symbolic point would be the narrators stand against the elephant. In the paragraph in which the narrator fires at the elephant, it is seen as docile, not bothering anyone anymore and having only made a sporadic wrong. The narrator then fires at the quite calm elephant once, but it does not fall and so, while it is still weak, he fires two more shots, bringing the magnificent creature down. Burma (The country in which the story is situated) has a long history of wars with the British Empire before finally giving in to Colonialism; three wars to be exact. It can be seen in the history books that Burma only wronged the British in a minor way and in fact was not directly bothering the British Raj and much like the narrator, it