Essay on Shooting an Elephant

The story of Shooting an Elephant is a short story that shows the internal struggle of a man who tries to figure out for himself if he values self respect more or others respect more. The main character is a European who works for the sub-divisional police in South East Asia. He is stationed in Burma where, even though he hates the people, he hopes the Burmese win the war. Hatred for the Burmese people is fueled by their mocking him and treatment towards him with absolutely no respect and little regard. In addition, even though the man shoots the elephant, he earlier stated that he had absolutely no resolve in him to shoot the elephant. His decision to not kill the elephant comes crumbling down when he realizes the Burmese will take notice of him if he shoots the elephant. Why would he care about what the Burmese thought of him if they hated him anyway? This is because his hatred for the Burmese is little in comparison to how much he wishes for respect and recognition. The

DISCUSS ORWELL'S USE OF PERSUASIVE TOOLS SUCH AS, SYMBOLISM, METAPHORS AND IRONY IN THIS ESSAY AND EXPLAIN HOW HE USES EACH OF THESE TO CONVEY HIS ARGUMENT OR MESSAGE

In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell is presented with a task that causes him a great deal of stress as he battles with his internal conflict throughout the story. Orwell has mixed feelings after he kills the elephant. He feels wrong for killing the elephant because he feels that there could have been a more peaceful solution and killing it will bring more harm than good. He also feels that he killed it just because of his own pride. Although killing the elephant may seem wrong to Orwell, it is definately necessary to prevent further harm. Orwell has a number of reasons that justify killing the elephant. He has to shoot the elephant because the elephant is a danger to the villagers, he is an authority figure, and for his

Throughout history the most famous poets have devoted their entire lives to literature and in doing so, have become very well known. George Orwell easily became one of the most famous poets of the modern century. Although he did not grow up as an avid writer, he quickly made a name for himself. The officer would write one of a kind stories about his own experiences and the lessons learned from them. Resulting in a great amount of attention and praise for his excellent work. Cindy Johnson, a biographer explains, “He wrote numerous essays and reviews over the years, developing a reputation for producing well-crafted literary criticism.” This obviously meaning that Orwell endured a great deal of criticism in his officer duties as well as in his writings. One of Orwell’s most famous poems is, Shooting An Elephant, in which he explains the messages of the effects of peer pressure, the realization of the importance of experiences long after they have happened, and the disappearance of imperialism.

In the short story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the author uses phenomenal word choice to strengthen the description of the story.Throughout the story the words chosen make “Shooting an Elephant” a story with a plentiful amount of description. In the second paragraph Orwell says “all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt,”(Orwell 1) using the word intolerable changes the whole sentence. By using intolerable the sentence gets a deeper meaning than if the word intolerable was removed from the sentence. Later in the paragraph Orwell again uses great word choice when describing the character feelings. When describing feelings about the empire Orwell said “ I was stuck between my hatred of the empire,”(Orwell 1) and

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.

In the article "Shooting an Elephants" by George Orwell the author's story is very captivating and descriptive. “I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” He does not hold back the details as if he remembers them. Orwell originally did not want to shoot the elephant but feared what his peers would say, his peers being the thousand yellow faces that stood behind him if he didn't complete his job. Unfortunately, he was not in fear of his life but his duty and job called for him to against his morals and shoots the elephant. The locals had it out for him anyways, not killing elephant would have added fire to the flame of the dislike they would have for the policeman. The Burmese people play a huge role, badgering

I peered through my window at the gang of children; four of them were kicking and clawing another child curled on the asphalt — his knees to his face, covering his head from their pummeling feet. My chest tightened knowing that there were too violent and too many for me to stop, being a child myself I knew that I has no chance of pulling them off without being hurt as well. The reason for this attack escaped my knowledge as I was isolated inside my room, detached from the outside world. I contemplated what I could do and something inside me instinctively pulled for me to run for help but the beating stopped as quickly as it started, I watched the others disperse. The victim got up and walk away, jeering fists at the retiring children, spitting

Symbols in George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant George Orwell’s story entitled “Shooting an Elephant” it takes place in 1920’s Burma now called Myanmar. While the British Empire is still in command of this set off southeast Asian countries. Orwell himself is a police officer during this time. He loves his country, but he also is softhearted for the people his country is cruel to.

In this essay “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell faces many conflicts which leads him to making horrible decisions. He faces internal conflicts about whether to shoot the elephant or not. He is indecisive between the his decisions because he is only thinking about his image and what the people will think of him if he does not follow the rules. George knows that imperialism is an evil thing but this what his job consisted of and he had to deal with the consequences. George Orwell describes his feelings as he was under the pressure about shooting the elephant.

In life we as humans often make decisions that we would not have made on our own if we would not have been influenced by someone else. As humans others' opinions mean a great deal to us, and in "Shooting an Elephant", Orwell shows how true this idea is by the tone of the story.

After reading “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, I can’t help but feel like not much has really changed since the blatantly intolerant times of imperialism. The fury and violence that occurred so passionately during this time seems to durable to dissolve through time. The hungry eyes and blood boilin temperament Orwell saw still exists- they’re just hidden under thick skin and the circumstances of modern times. Imperialism in general still exists- it's just hidden by ignorant eyes and arrogant temperaments. The fact is, the events that occurred in this essay are very real, and the enlightenment that came with it is even more accurate than before. Just because the effects of imperialism aren’t broadcasted like they are in history books

In his essay, Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell illustrates his experiences as a British police officer, and reflects it to the nature of imperialism. He hates his job as a police officer in Moulmein because an “anti-European feeling was very bitter” due to British Empire’s dictatorship in Burma. Therefore, Orwell, a white man is being treated disrespectfully by the Burmese which allows him to hate his job and British Empire, the root of everything. However, the incident of shooting of an elephant gives him a “better glimpse … of the real nature of imperialism – the real motives for which despotic government act” (13). In order to express the effects of imperialism, Orwell illustrates this “enlightening” incidence by using various

“We are experiencing what is likely to be the greatest percentage loss of elephants in history,” said Richard G. Ruggiero, an official with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Ney York Times; December 3, 2012). The poaching of elephants started in the late 1800’s and is still happening today. People are slaughtering these majestic animals for their ivory tusks. Ivory has been sold on the black market for millions of dollars. Before the start of ivory poaching there were millions of elephants in the world in both Africa and India, but today because of the hunting for ivory, there are barely any of these giants left in the wild. Throughout history Europeans have been moving in on central African states to make

1.Paraphrase- to express the meaning of the writer or speaker using different words to achieve greater clarity(re-wording something).