Susan Orwell's Chinese Cinderella

Orwell does this to help give another example of how he is trying to inform his readers about imperialism. In James A. Tyner’s journal, “Landscape and the mask of self in George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an elephant”, Tyner agrees that, “for the moment, that the elephant does symbolize the British Empire” (265). Orwell gets a call that an elephant has attacked and killed a Burmese man for no reason. This allows the reader to make the connection the elephant’s attack on the Burmese was exactly what the British were doing to the Burmese. The British was trying to establish dominance over the Burmese people and would do whatever it took to gain control. The same thing applies for the elephant. The elephant establishes his dominance by “destroying somebody’s bamboo hut, killing a cow and raiding some fruit-stalls and devouring the stock; it also had met the municipal rubbish van, and, when the driver jumped out and took to his heels, had turned the van over and inflicted violence upon it” (Orwell, 44). This shows the reader that just like the British, the elephant would do what it took to establish its dominance. Orwell explains that the death of the elephant was a long and drawn out process. This is exactly what happened to the British Empire. The Elephants death shows the fall of the British Empire by its own members. Orwell mentions numerous times “I did not

During the killing of the elephant, Orwell only cared not to be seen as a fool by his people, who he sees as judges: "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." Ironically, the British actually control the British officer instead of being the other way around. Even though, Orwell initially didn't want to hurt the elephant, the killing event actually makes him feel important. He lost his freedom

Orwell uses alliteration effectively during moments of great tension and to exaggerate the situation. Particularly, during the death of the elephant, George uses the letter ‘s’ repeatedly when describing what is occurring. He details that the elephant appears “suddenly stricken, shrunken ...sagged … slobbered” (154). This series of adjectives create a general mood for the reader and increases the impact of the elephant’s demise. It is evident that this incident had a profound effect on George and it seemed to cement itself into his memory. He describes in vivid detail the “long rattling gasps” (155) and how the elephant’s “breathing did not weaken” (155). Overall the event is detailed as if in slow motion and the repetition of ‘s’ sound mimics the slowness, like a snake slithering through the grass. Orwell chose an emotional approach for the essay and the use of alliteration in this context communicates the excruciating death of the elephant which connects with readers. The passage is almost painful to read, which causes readers to consider the consequences of their lifestyle, ignorance and

Throughout his novel Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, Dai Sijie illustrates the powerful influence that books have on their readers. Through his narrative, he establishes his stance on the controversial issue of whether or not storytelling is good. He combines countless events and feelings to create a novel that demonstrates the good of storytelling and the iniquity of book banning and burning. In the end, Sijie portrays storytelling as a means of good entertainment, enlightening experience and positive encouragement.

He emphasizes on how it was a slow, painful, agonizing death. Orwell depicts the staggering elephant, and how it took five shots to kill the ‘beast’. The whole scene has an uncertain feeling, as if everything were moving in slow motion. There is a certain sense of helplessness in this scene, as if Orwell was the only person who had the power and authority to choose the elephant’s fate. The ‘beast’ did not put up a fight, but instead died a solemn, graceful death. This could be a comparison to the native people who died during the imperialism of Burma. How they all perished without putting up much of a fight. The elephant could symbolize the people of Burma, the slow, helpless death that the native people suffered. Just like the elephant, they had no value to the British Empire. Orwell goes into intricate detail into the movements of the elephant, he suggested that the elephant “seemed for a moment to rise” (12) as if he wanted to fight back. This could also be a direct reference to the Burmese people, suggesting that they wanted to fight back, but they didn’t because they realized they were no match for the British. It is evident that it takes a long time for the elephant to finally succumb to the pain. Orwell claims it was “dreadful to see the great beast lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die”, (12) this could suggest that he himself did not want to shoot the elephant, but he

Jane Yolen discusses the variations in Cinderella throughout history in America’s “Cinderella” Yolen began a career in publications as an editor and later became a professional writer, winning numerous awards and publishing over seventy novels. Yolen observes that the European Cinderella and the Asian Cinderella possess more strength than the helpless modern Cinderella. She attributes this evolution to cultural incorporations and mass market’s reproductions of the tale. American interpretations of Cinderella result in a lasting change to a dependent heroine. Yolen reveals many people are familiar with the changed Cinderella and not the former Cinderella. In Jane Yolen’s essay, America’s “Cinderella”, she denounces the debasement of women in today’s society by comparing the past Cinderella to modern Cinderella, characterizing Cinderella as reliant, and criticizing the example of Walt Disney’s Cinderella.

After watching cinderella and reading cinder there was many similar things to the movie and book but there was also many different things that went on.Even though there were more difference between the to they still have the similarities.

Every girl has at one time wanted to be a princess. We held this belief because of the stories we were told as young girls. The stories we heard in which poor peasant girls could become princesses through perseverance, patience, beauty or wit. These stories were introduced to us under the guise of fairytales, which, for many of us are synonymous with the name Grimm, although several of our favorite fairytales are by other authors. Even if you don’t know the name Grimm, you know at least one story by the brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and Rapunzel, and the list continues. The Grimm Brothers collected and wrote stories scattered throughout the rural countryside, recording them based on a general

Short stories are seemingly a lost art amongst the literary community. Legendary writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many more have paved the way for writers such as Ha Jin and Phil Klay who write today. Now, although one could speak on the importance of each of these tremendous writers, the focus in paper will be on two writings being that of Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and Ha Jin’s, “Under The Red Flag”. Now, each book contains many short stories that encapture readers throughout them. Flannery O’Connor’s classic short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, will be compared and contrasted with Ha Jin’s ,”Decade” and “The Richest Man”. Just as Greg Orwell

Joosen’s thesis revolves around the didactic potential fairy tales hold, arguing the feminist side in criticizing the gender bias and influence that fairy tales have on young children. She goes on to introduce the idea that retelling fairy tales, with a feminist twist, provides a new perspective on the traditional ones, using Sleeping Ugly as an example. Joosen then compares Lieberman’s critiques to the tale – traditional versus transformed. Following, she analyzes the purpose of retellings and problems within the example tale. The writer highlights the idea of “read[ing] against the text” to question the intertextual connections (135). To conclude, Joosen reiterates the argument between the educational and aesthetic aspect of the

The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in.

In the beginning of the Story Orwell stated “I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing”. With Orwell having to shoot the elephant in his eyes it shows different aspects of imperialism and how evil it is. Orwell focuses on how imperialism forced him to do something he did not want to do. Imperialism wasn’t good for the people nor as in power.

Authors in the world write autobiographies about themselves and about there lives. They do this to show what it was like, changes in society problems and they show problems and how to overcome and dealt with them. Adeline Yen Mah is the author of Chinese Cinderella her own autobiography that uses narrative conventions, language features examples emotive language and prospective to present the theme of perseverance, neglect and family. Adeline Yen Mah explores the idea of perseverance in the novel and she never gives up on what she believes in.

When someone mentions the name “Cinderella”, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is the fairytale in which the fair maiden who works so hard yet it treated so poorly gains her “fairytale ending” with a wave of a magic wand. However, the fairytale of Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers has multiple differences in plot from the fairytale we all usually think of. The plot of the Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers, written in 1812, is that a young female’s mother passes away early in the story, departing with the message to Cinderella to remain “pious and good”. Cinderella remained true to this message given to her by her mother, and she showed this in her work ethic. Because Cinderella had remained pious and good, her mother, in return, watched over her in the form of the birds above her grave that gave Cinderella help and material things that she needed. In the end, Cinderella has her “happily ever after”, for when the prince held a festival to find a new bride, she was chosen due to her insurmountable beauty. The feminist lens critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. These representations of women often include them being passive and emotional—staying back while the men do the work. Cinderella relates to the feminist lens because she fits into the typical representations of women created by men. Feminist criticism is important to recognize because women are often falsely represented as helpless, thus needing a man to come to their rescue. It is common in literature to see helpless women, crying and begging for help instead of being able to work out their own problems and hardships. Others, however, may believe that it is still important to uphold the fundamentals of the feminist lens because it keeps the man in power, which they say is important in keeping the man the head of the household. Cinderella thoroughly represents the feminist lens because it shows how women in literature uphold the representations of passive and emotional, created by the man.

The book “Burmese Days” was written by George Orwell and published first in 1934. Orwell took the inspiration for this first novel of his from the experiences he gained during his service as an imperial police officer in Burma in the late 1920s. There he was confronted with extreme forms of imperialism, causing racism and also chauvinism. These are also the main topics of the novel and although they are wrapped up in the story of a single man’s fate, John Flory’s, these topics caused some problems with the publishing of the book. For that reason the book was first published in America, the English version wasn’t published until some changes – mainly name changes – were made which was nearly a