Imperialism Essay

In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the author writes about his experience with dealing a rampant elephant in British Colonial Burma. Privilege is usually viewed as a positive attribute, however Orwell explores all of the negatives that privileges can bring, which can be applied to modern day social expectations and politics. In order to highlight its effects on a personal and a widespread level, he uses the rhetorical device of figurative language. The figurative language__________…

In The Pearl, Steinbeck captures the destructive effect of colonialism on the indigenous people. This parable includes many motifs that depicts how greed and corruption can be a destructive force and overwhelm an individual. The novella portrays two contrasting forces that shape a person’s future. It depicts a world in which humans shape their own destinies. However, forces beyond human control can sweep at any moment and completely change the course of an individual’s life. It can be…

The novel « Things Fall Apart » by Chinua Achebe is written in English. However, there are some Ibo expressions set in this novel to introduce the reader’s mind into a more authentic and unique African atmosphere. The author, Chinua Achebe, is the first to write a novel about colonialism in the perspective of a colonized tribe from within. Furthermore, he is the only African who has ever described the African culture before and after the settlement of the Christians. This essay will examine how…

Introduction: In this essay the Frontier Wars will be discussed. This topic will be discussed with the main focus on the wars itself, their impact upon the Xhosa tribal structure, leading to the eventual subjugation of The Xhosa. According to Ryan Merkley, the Xhosa Wars, also known as the Cape Frontier Wars, or “Africa’s 100 years war”, were a series of nine wars between the Xhosa tribes and European settlers in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa (Jay, 2010). The Frontier or Xhosa…

Rosaldo’s Theory of Imperialist Nostalgia explains, among other things, how a group of people can remove themselves from a situation in order to conceal guilt. This accompanies people mourning for what they destroyed themselves. This process establish innocence while still bragging about what has been done. Imperialist nostalgia also allows the guilty party to become “impartial detached observers” (121) and helps to conceal guilt (109). Rosaldo’s theory of imperialist nostalgia explains the…

The postcolonial period incorporates such unsettled issues as formation of cultures and identities and to what extent entire decolonization can be achieved not only in the political area but also in the cultural and psychological aspects of the colonized societies. Since the beginning of the second half of the twentieth century, discussions on whether identities and cultural properties are fixed and stable or protean and unsettled have been in progress ardently without any unanimity. One of the…

The first T-Shirt is designed according to the idea of protection in Elephant Run. During the Second World War, the Imperial Japanese Army invades Burma, a small British colony located in Southeast Asia. Nick Freestone, the protagonist has recently immigrated to Burma to live on his father’s plantation away from the German air raids in London, England after his own apartment was bombed. Soon after Nick’s arrival, however, the Japanese invade, and capture the Freestone plantation, forcing “[a]ll…

1. Introduction: The Relationship Between Civilizations and Colonialism Colonialism describes the expansion of territory through colonial rule over a colony. A relationship is maintained between the colonizer and the colony through power and control. Colonialism itself stands as period of European exploration, conquering, and maintaining of other territories. It embodies the expansion of the Western civilization through the means of trade, labor, and power. Britain followed this structure of…

In his examination of security threats and violence in Africa, Mangala (2010:88) defines conflict as a ‘dispute or incompatibility between two or more opposing sides... It becomes a destructive force where the capacity to mediate incompatible interests breaks down and those interests are pursued through violence, either at a community, national, or international level’. One of the most prevalent forms of violent conflict in Africa affecting states and civilians are civil wars. Collier & Hoeffler…

Orwell's Values In The Killing Of The Elephant Orwell is struggling with his two very different values that come into conflict about shooting the elephant and how they impact his decisions. We first see that Orwell values the life of the animal. When he is first asked to come deal with the situation he grabs a small gun to just scare the animal but not big enough to kill it. To him he see’s the elephant as a living creature just like anyone else who deserves to live. He says “somehow it always…