George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

Decent Essays
George Orwell in the short story, “Shooting An Elephant” (1936), explains that he was a sub-divisional police officer in town which the people disrespected him. Orwell support his short story by explaining that if he shoots the elephant the people won’t laugh and call him weak but give some kind of respect. The author’s purpose is to inform people how pressure can affect a person to do something he doesn’t want to do, like how the author don’t want to murder the elephant. The author writes in a negative tone for a person who get influenced by other group of

Related Documents

  • 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
  • Superior Essays

    In addition, the speaker of “Shooting an Elephant” is a sub-divisional police officer and a lot of people hate him, thus leading him wanting to please the people by shooting the elephant. Orwell persuades the readers that under imperialism both parties suffer. The author accomplishes his purpose through shifts in verb tense, reflective tone, and specific details to assert authority; metaphor and analogy to demonstrate logic; and a self-deprecating tone, direct reader address, and colloquial language to establish an emotional connection with the audience. Orwell’s shifts in verb tense evoke a…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Rhetorical Analysis of “Shooting an Elephant” Caught between a rock and a hard place Mr. George Orwell is in “Shooting an Elephant”. Orwell’s features an entertaining and informative style of the characters and how they feel tend to draw us into Burma. Orwell utilizes the use of ethos throughout the story making you sympathize with the main character. In "Shooting an Elephant", Orwell tries to gain the sympathy of the Burman folk by expressing his feelings as an English man in Burma, yet he fails to convey to the Burmese his intentions, troubled with his morals, and showing a sense of tenderness to the dying Elephant.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Shooting an Elephant” there is a message about man’s desire for many things. George Orwell uses style to portray this message to the reader. In “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell shows man’s desire to assert dominance by his word usage, his style of dialogue, and the main character’s actions. George Orwell shows man’s desire of dominance by his vocabulary in “Shooting an Elephant”. All throughout the story Orwell is very detailed in his words.…

    • 333 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Orwell also uses the technique of imagery to the strongest extent to further his argument. In the moment that the narrator looks back on the crowd of natives behind him, he depicts the people as a “sea of yellow faces”, hungry for action and excitement. The image of a rumblingsea, tossing and turning with excitement, creates a sense of power behind the façade of the oncehelpless natives. Indeed, during the course of the next few scenes, Orwell feels this power as anunyielding force pressuring him to shoot the elephant. As Orwell mulls over the critical decision,he comes upon the realization that the “white man” must display strength and authority when the people demand it.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In "Shooting an Elephant," by George Orwell there are many aspects of Orwell's style conveyed throughout the essay. One essential aspect of Orwell's writing is diction. The correct usage of words acknowledges the author to develop a particular feeling about the text which is used to emphasize how he feels and how he wants to impact the readers. In Orwell’s writing, his use of diction captures the audience and transports them into the mind and emotions of his own. Orwell was born as Eric Blair on June 25th of 1903.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    George Orwell was an English author who is a well known figure today in literature. According to Matthew Price, Orwell is continuously resurrected by his many supporters and is hard to keep in the grave (Price, 2003). Two of Orwell’s earliest writings include “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.” Orwell’s “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant” both have similarities and differences that can be examined by further analyzing each text.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Outside factors will influence the choice they make, which goes against their moral beliefs, ending in unjust behavior. Two thousand people gather around, all focusing their eyes on two things, the peaceful elephant and the motionless killer. One harmless call, and George Orwell is faced with two decisions he can make, either wait for the elephant’s mahout or aim for…

    • 365 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent 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

    Fakhara, Rabab E.L.A B30 Mrs. Tabitha, Booth Feb. 28, 2017 Compare and Contrast Essay Everyone has their own values that they deal with, some are more important than others while some we forget to follow. We lose some of our values because we start valuing the values of others in our peer group, just to fit in. Everyone deals with their values differently. Both stories are more different than similar , where one character gives up his value to support another value while the other character gives up everything to maintain his values. “Shooting the elephant” depicts the story of a young officer who has to decide whether to follow his own path or the path that the majority wants him to follow.…

    • 578 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

    Think Twice Before You Shoot In “Shooting an Elephant,” from The Norton Reader, George Orwell explains his personal experience in an imperialistic county where he feels as though he is forced to shoot an elephant that had escaped into a town killing a man. His thoughts were not set on killing the wild animal but under circumstances, Orwell felt as though he would be seen as a fool to the natives if he did not live up to the expectation of the natives to kill the elephant. Once Orwell shot the elephant he had to watch as it lay slowly dying, seemingly not wanting to die the elephant remained to hold on to the life he had left. Orwell ends up killing the elephant once and for all after many brutal attempts, and then he sits analyzing weather…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Is it possible that peer pressure is the cause of the majority of wrongdoing amongst our society? Ever since the beginning of time the social ladder and what people think of you has become a custom of what seems to be every day life. For some reason in particular doing the wrong thing draws positive attention to people. Should this act in fact be frowned upon, or supported based on the fact you could possibly be seen higher in society. George Orwell in his writing Shooting An Elephant discusses three keys messages the fear of humiliation seems to be more powerful than the right thing, always follow what you believe is the right thing, and the wrong thing seems to be more often than not better appreciated by your peers.…

    • 730 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved 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

    ‘Shooting an Elephant’ represents a very powerful essay with a police officer that suffers from inner conflict. Orwell seems to be a very weak individual with a weak mindset. Confused and lost as to what decisions he really should make on his own. He sets the mood of this impression in the start of his essay.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays