Animal Farm Comparative Analysis Essay

Improved Essays
George Orwell
A Comparative analysis

George Orwell’s Animal Farm (1945) and Shooting an Elephant (1938) both share two major characteristic features, namely politics and history. Animal Farm is mainly an allegory of the Russian Revolution which took place in 1917. All of the characters in the story represents the biggest names in the Russian Revolution and the early start of the Soviet Union. The farm itself is also supposed to represent the Russian Federation, which they fight for in the novel.
Shooting an Elephant - also written by George Orwell, is based on facts as well. The narrator describes his experience while working as a police officer in “British Burma”. The whole story is a form of a metaphor for British imperialism. It’s about the evil of imperialism and how he feels that he is pressured to shoot the elephant by the mob of people, even though
…show more content…
I, however, feel like peer pressure is one of the best themes to describe the story. The narrator shoots the elephant, even though he doesn’t really want to. But he feels that he must maintain his role as a police officer in his position, representing the British colonial government while surrounded by a mob of native people. Not only that, but he also does it because the mob of people pressed him to do it and he couldn’t just do the opposite, again because of his position.

Now, secondly I want to explain the messages I’ve “received” from the two stories. “Rule or be ruled” is one of the messages I’ve gotten from Shooting an Elephant. The main role of a ruler is to sort of maintain domination and not to show any kind of weakness. The narrator shoots the wild elephant because the people expect him to do so; not shooting the elephant would make him appear and look weak. So, the tables have kind of turned in this situation. The narrator is supposed to rule the Burmese, but instead they rule him with a kind of pressure which makes them the

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    " Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays. London:Secker and Warburg, 1950. More From This User Motivational Speech Outline Motivational Speech Presentation This I Believe Essay Yio Kyung…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One message that these two short stories have in common is don’t let peer pressure make your decisions. This is particularly evident in Shooting an Elephant. The narrator of this story shares his account of being pressured by the native people of Africa to shoot an elephant. He does not want to look like an idiot in front of them, so he lets the pressure get the best of him.…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shooting an Elephant’s plot structure revolves around the conflict between the speaker and himself. Explicitly, the conflict is presented as one of the speaker against the society, with the speaker battling the Burmese prejudice as well as trying to earn their approval; however, the…

    • 1163 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Animal Farm Essay The US has utilized propaganda techniques through history during international crisis and war. George Orwell visibly uses propaganda in his fictional novel Animal Farm. The book is set on a farm called Manor Farm, which was changed to Animal Farm, with talking animals who rebel against their farmer. According to Orwell, the novel symbolizes events leading up to the Russian Revolution and then later on to the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union.…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    George Orwell Stereotypes

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ideologies and structures that manifest in society are ceaselessly reinforced, causing an unfathomable chasm of disparity between individuals. Within the essays of “Shooting an Elephant”, “Learning to Read and Write” and “Just Walk on By”, in some sort of way they demonstrate how difficult for one to counteract misconceptions and stereotypes when such negative connotations are deeply ingrained in society; ultimately one is more susceptible to fall into becoming the stereotype. The essay “Shooting an Elephant” written by George Orwell is a personal account of his struggle for self-identity, especially as a colonial officer. The job he chose did not reflect his true intentions, the irony as he writes, “All I knew was that I was stuck between…

    • 387 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Shooting An Elephant

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the story, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, he is essentially powerless because even though he is an authority figure he feels he must do what the Burmese people expect him to do or he will be laughed at or humiliated. Orwell ends up shooting and killing an elephant, “a tame one which had gone must”(Orwell, p.140), which is aggressive behavior triggered by mating instincts(footnotes). He did not want to kill the elephant but he ended up doing it anyways because he felt pressured by all the 2000 plus Burmese people who expected him to do it. Even though he was in a position of power over the Burmese people he felt powerless and ended up doing what the Burmese people wanted in order not to be laughed at or spit on or seem like someone who was not in charge. In Shooting an Elephant, Orwell’s behavior demonstrates that imperialism as a political and social ideology doesn’t work because even though he is technically the one in authority he actually has no authority at all because he does things only so he doesn’t end up looking like a fool.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Gorge, Orwell writes about an elephant in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” where the main craters is a police man for the British emperor in one of the eastern countries. This police man has an internal power struggle with his duty and internal feelings of what he knows as right. In this country he imply about how the people there are cage and are oppressed by the British Emperor he is also concern with his duty and how the people view him. Even though the policeman is authority figure he takes on the role of the tyrant.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being a person of high authorities can sometimes form a burden on you. This correlates to, “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, which is about a police officer in Burma. The police officer is a European, so he faces plenty of hatred in Burma. However, one day an elephant goes into “must” state and it is up to this police officer to stop the elephant. The police officer is not justified in his actions as he shoots the elephant to maintain his pride, the elephant is already in peace and there is plenty of social pressure.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    After working as an imperialistic police for England George Orwell saw fist had the good and the bad that comes with imperializing a country. Three important symbols that come together to give a vivid description in Orwell’s “shooting an Elephant” are , the rifle, the elephant, and the villagers. A rifle can be week, powerful, large, or small. The rifle in Orwell’s “shooting an Elephant” fistly represents England 's power. England was losing its power as a rifle can as it ages.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Pathos in Shooting an Elephant "Shooting an Elephant" written in 1936 by the British writer George Orwell tells an experience of an author who shoots an elephant during the time of being a colonial police in the British colony of Burma in 1926. Orwell once said: "There is no book that does not contains political tendencies"(Orwell). His "Shooting an Elephant" is no exception. As an anti-imperialist, he uses this short story to express his opposition of colonial rule and resentment of the British Empire. "Pathos is the motivation factor"(Demırdöğen).…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    George Orwell’s Animal Farm first published in England on the 17th of August 1945. It reflects the events leading up to the Russian revolution of 1917 and the Stalinist era of the Soviet Union. Orwell created a figure who represented the Russian peasants and common working class, known as Boxer. The working class had been betrayed by the Stalinists, similar to Boxer who had also been betrayed by the other animals on the farm.…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Adrianna Geisler ENGL1010 Essay #1 8 Sept. 2015 Reading Response Essay for “Shooting an Elephant” In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the author is trying to show how imperialism can have strong effects on someone. In addition, Orwell describes his personal decision to shoot an elephant after the animal kills a man.…

    • 1065 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the essay “Shooting an Elephant”, it is based on a man who is pressured to kill an elephant that was thought to be wild. This adventure took place in Moulmein, in Lower Burma. Could he have saved this elephant and done what his heart wanted to do? Or was the peer pressure by others to strong? Orwell withheld the…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    GLOBAL JAYA INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL English Language & Literature HL Extended Essay How Does George Orwell Use Symbolism To Show Us His Ideas On Authoritarianism in his novel “Animal Farm”? Lucas Gramm Candidate Number: 002189-0025 Word Count: 3454…

    • 3453 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the story of the elephant Mr. Orwell paints a picture of another type of inner conflict that he experienced while working in Burma. That is, when one knows deep inside what they should rightly do, but due to outside pressures and influences they choose another course of action. The anecdote is about an elephant that is out of control and is ravaging a village. George Orwell is called out to neutralize the situation, but he does not know what he can do to help things. When he arrived at the scene he was told the elephant got away to paddy fields a thousand yards away.…

    • 907 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays