Shooting an Elephant

Setting a story helps create an image and feeling in a readers mind. It help builds the story. The settings of “On Making an Agreeable Marriage”, “The New Dress”, and “Shooting an Elephant” help the reader understand more of the situations that the novel is placed in. In “The New Dress” setting affects the actions and thoughts of each character. The story is place in the 1920’s. The story is set in this time because Virginia Woolf wrote it in this time period. Mabel is going to a party and in…

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…

Due to external factors, one of their conflicting values would become stronger and they would make a choice based on the strong value. In the story, “Shooting an Elephant”, the option of killing the elephant was in line with Orwell’s value of fulfilling his duty as an police officer and more importantly, his desire of wanting to fit into the Burmans social circle. Other scenario is when a person trying to reconcile the two conflicting…

power. Whether it be for more territory or for the natural resources that lesser developed countries have, large and developed countries have always annexed other land to appropriate these resources for their own use. In the short story, “To Kill an Elephant,” George Orwell is a member of the Imperialist police in Burma. While strongly against imperialism and Britain's command in parts of Asia, Orwell still performs as the imperialist powers would want him to. He is a very subservient pawn that…

George Orwell in “Shooting an Elephant,” and Arthur Miller in “Get it Right: Privatize Executions” all repeat the same theme: a person’s sense of morality is not only defined by their inherent nature, but also by the desire to please other people. In his essay, “Who Killed Benny Paret?,” Norman Cousins focuses on the Paret vs. Griffith…

and point of view through the essay Shooting an Elephant. Nevertheless,…

culture and our society. These essays relate to the theme of culture and society, in how society can judge someone. In Orwell's essay, the main character was mainly concerned of how the "natives" would view and treat him if he did not shoot the elephant. He felt incredible pressure from the crowd that had gathered in the hopes of witnessing a spectacle and he did not want to feel like a fool in their eyes. Gansber's essay relates to the theme, in how no one called the police because they were…

such as epigenetics. If we look at the connection between the Holocaust and epigenetics through the lens of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” the topic of epigenetics become more relatable and easier to understand. Hence, Orwell makes it easier for us to digest the influence of the Nazi Germany military on Holocaust victims and their offspring at the genetic…

Non-Conformity Defined in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, “Conformity is the fact or state of obeying or agreeing with a behavior that is similar to a behavior of most other people in a society, group, etc.” In the following reading selections: “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, “They Call Him a Miracle Worker” by Michael Ryan, and “Salvation” by Langston Hughes, the authors illustrate how the characters of these essays felt pressured to conform to the expectations of others without…

It is reasonable to act against one’s principles if the general consensus requires a person to do so. Is that so? Is it really reasonable to throw one’s morals out the window to fulfill the majority’s needs? Is it necessary to deem one’s beliefs secondary to the beliefs of those around? Because it shouldn’t be. A decision isn’t always between right and wrong. No, most of the time the decision is between one’s beliefs and what they wants to do, and what they THINK those around believe in and what…