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
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