The True Power of Imperialism George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma. Because the locals expect him to do the job, Orwell shoots the elephant against his better judgment due to the pressure to uphold the reputation of the British. “Shooting an Elephant” shows how imperialism can result in undesirable behavior and inflect harm on…
characters, the elephant and its assassin. The British officer, the assassin, acts as a symbol of the British Empire, while the elephant symbolizes the victims, Burmese. Together, the narrator and the elephant turns this incident into an attack on Imperialism. As a British officer, he is hated by much of the natives but he theoretically—and secretly was on their side and against the Empire he was serving. Orwell uses the story of shooting the elephant to make his point clear that he never wanted…
Amitav Ghosh throws light on the imperialist modes of social, cultural and ecological dominance in his fourth novel The Glass Palace. The novel points out that how colonialization has brutally exploded in the South Asia and results into the environmental degradation. The novel is interlocked in the various historical events like colonization of Burma by the British, the First World War, and conquest of Japan over Russia, the intense changes wrought by World War II etc. It’s a story that…
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__________…
How far was the American empire similar to the British one? The United States of America in many ways aimed to distance themselves from their former colonial masters. The American Enlightenment had set forth the notion that the American colonists should form an entirely new nation built on the ideals of liberty, the rights of man, republicanism, and so forth. But America exhibited symptoms of imperialism - both hard imperialism and soft imperialism - in their growth and expansion west. Whilst…
Usman Aliyu Mr. Ramon Villar G10 Integrated Humanities: History 20 November 2017 Essay on Imperialism “Imperialism is the act of a bigger (stronger nation) takes full control over a smaller (weaker nation). It dominates in aspects such as political, social, economical aspect of the country (What is Imperialism, 2017)”. The term imperialism came from the Latin verb "imperare", it means 'to command' and from the Roman "imperium" (expansion). As early 1830, Europeans started imperialism in…
The one of story about shooting an elephant, what happened in it has police officer and the story has In this powerful essay, George Orwell uses the symbol of when he was forced to shoot an elephant to describe the foolhardiness and inherent weakness of the colonial endeavour. He describes how the elephant did not need to be shot and how he really didn't want to shoot it. However, when he finally reaches the elephant, the crowd that is getting bigger with every moment pressurises him into…
The ultimate goal of imperialism is control, however, control is not always positive. In George Orwell’s short story “Shooting an Elephant,” the effects of imperialism are explained. imperialism causes repercussions on the respect and morality of, not only the people of Burma, but also the people of the imperial power. Imperialism causes an anti-Europeans sentiment, which leads to resentment by the oppressed, and also causes the oppressors to be imprisoned by the system of imperialism, which…
In Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, the narrator has to deal with an elephant that killed a man in a market in Burma. He also has to uphold his British culture while showing the locals that the British are powerful. In Lessing’s “No Witchcraft for Sale”, the main character has to deal with two conflicting cultures, the Farquar’s, and his African roots. “When a nimble Burman man tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with…
motivations to help only themselves, the imbalance in power dynamics, and the loss of the imperialized people’s land and traditional values. Imperialists are motivated to imperialize countries weaker than their own in order to continue building a stronger empire for themselves, leading them often to exploit imperialized countries and negatively affecting the imperialized countries’ progress. In Nectar in a Sieve, the main character, Rukmani, and her family live on a farm in their rural village…