Opgave 2.1 Shooting an Elephant Shooting an Elephant is an essay written by George Norwell in 1936. The text is written for the generally audience which like reading a good story. The author wants to make the text livelier and that is why he uses figurative language. He also uses common everyday language so the text is easier to read for the big audience. When you read the essay it is clear that it describes the experience of an English police officer that is very unpopular in the city of Burma.
Is society accounted for the actions of a single person? In the passage “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell I feel that Orwell was not justified for shooting the elephant but who was pressured into killing it by the power of the people. The people who George Orwell was supposed to be rulling, ruled him. Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant but the feelings he had and the way he was mistreated by the people of Burma he had no choice but to listen to them. “As soon as I saw the elephant perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him” When Orwell saw the elephant for the first time he knew that it wasn’t being dangerous, it was peacefully eating grass.
After reading, “Shooting an Elephant”, many questions came to my head at the end of the story. My first question was if the man deep inside felt like he shouldn’t have shot the elephant, then why did he? “I looked at the sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes-faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot.” (George Orwell) this sentence tells me that the police officer was going against what he believed in just to make the 2000 plus crowd happy. I firmly disagree with this decision, one because I do not partake in killing massive animals such as the elephant, and two because if he knew deep down how he felt about killing the creature he shouldn’t have done it. I was very shocked by his gory decision to be honest.
Analysis Essay “Shooting an Elephant” was written by Gorge Orwell in 1936, but published in 1950. The story is a short bio where he recollects an incident that he faced while serving in Burma. Orwell’s story is entitled “Shooting and Elephant,” however; it is not based on the simple fact that he shot an elephant, but it delves deeper into his emotionally and mental reasoning behind his decision to do so. In the story Orwell is called upon to handle a situation where an elephant is roaming loose in one of the villages. He is to go and see what is going on and to handle the situation as he sees fit.
Orwell puts his own feelings aside to please the villagers and kills the elephant. Although Orwell thought he had legally done the right thing, he should have gone with his first instinct and observed the elephant in hopes that it was done with its rampage so that he could avoid killing the elephant, and if it weren’t, then Orwell would have been doing the right thing when shooting the elephant. George Orwell was a native of British India, 1903-1950. “George Orwell was a master of wit and satire, critically observing the politics of his time and prophetically envisioning the future. He devoted much of his life to various causes critical of capitalism, imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, but in the end what he “most wanted to do is to make political writing into an art.“ (C.D Merriman) His real name was Eric Blair and George Orwell was his pen name.
In the two readings, Journal of the First Voyage to America and Shooting an Elephant, the authors, Christopher Columbus and George Orwell, had two very different views of the inhabitants of the locations they were in with Columbus being in San Salvador and Orwell being in Burma. The cause of the different views could be that where Orwell was he had been living with them and had to deal with all of their insults and criticisms because he was a British policemen who was there to enforce all of the rules established by Britain in the area and this caused many people to fear and despise him because of his job. But, in the location where Columbus was he was just visiting the land and was there to befriend the peoples so that they would have good
Orwell Shoots an Elephant In the short story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, he writes about his experience as a police officer for the British Empire in lower Burma. The story takes place in the mid 1920’s during the British occupation of Burma, and as imperialistic toleration nearly reaches the breaking point. Orwell speaks of how he feels the British empire is the oppressor even though he is one of its citizens and an enforcer of British law. Also, Orwell tells the reader about how his job as a police officer is miserable because the Burmese hate the presence of Europeans in their country. This has a strong impact on Orwell when a working elephant escapes from its owners’ home and begins to terrorize a local village, killing a man.
Nevertheless, all that is mentioned in the story is narrated by Orwell’s perspective. Orwell is normally known as an anti-imperialist writer but in the story, he makes us feel in different way because of his manner against native people who are exploited by Orwell’s country. Moreover, Orwell truly worked as an officer in Burma but he wrote the story as an older author. Because of the fact that he served Indian Imperial Police in Burma, his writings about colonialism have intense emotions and knowledge but surely not about colonized people’s pains. Selfishness can easily be felt in “Shooting an Elephant”.
Setting The essay that is being narrated takes place in Moulmein in lower Burma. During the rainy season. Characters The Crowd The crowd is first introduced in the essay because of its “hideous laughter.” This same laughter is what makes the narrator weak. It is what limits the choice between being laughed of, or shooting the elephant, a creature which he knows ought to be left alone. The Elephant Along the essay the elephant is mentioned in the essay.
Jade Paul Dr. Jackson AP Lang Period 7 15 September 2013 Murder For The Purpose of Image By the end of George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell being a police officer representing the imperialistic government, makes a final decision to kill an elephant that has caused destruction throughout a village in Burma. Orwell was not respected by the people he was protecting and in his mind he was trying to keep peace throughout the village, but instead created a disturbance by being in Burma. The people look at Orwell as someone coming from the British government to contain the people and make sure violence and resistance does not outbreak. Orwell tries to change this image of himself in their eyes by killing the elephant but in reality it just inserted more fear into the people. The elephant was used as a display to the people that they should fear Orwell and his authority to intimidate the people.