Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell Essay

In Orwell’s writings he often writes about an attack on the evils of tyranny. Very often his writings have an entity that rules over all. These writings show that a system of tyranny creates a society that does not progress, rather, it regresses.

For example, his essay “Shooting An Elephant” portrays the idea about imperialism, another prime example of a system of tyranny. Due to imperialism, Europeans have been driven to thoughts of anger and hatred towards the anti-Europeans, which consist of Burmans and Buddhists. In the essay he writes “with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a buddhist priest’s guts”, this shows thoughts of violence that are driven by this system of tyranny (source D). After this he also says “Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism” supporting that …show more content…
The main character, Winston, lies in a society where Big Brother rules over all. This system of tyranny enforces many laws to ensure themselves power and distinguish any thought of rebellion from society. When Winston says “All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. "Reality control," they called it: in Newspeak, "doublethink."” he introduces one of Big Brothers many laws, doublethink (source A). A reality control created b to diminish thoughts of rebellion from society. He also mentions another law called facecrime, “In any case, to wear an improper expression on your face was itself a punishable offense. There was even a word for it in Newspeak: facecrime, it was called.” (source A). Having the wrong facial expression resulted in punishment by big brother, because of facecrime, society’s ability to function is very limited. This system of tyranny and its wide set of rules and laws limit the people in this society’s ability to think and function. Without the power to do so, this society will never progress, it will only