From the very beginning of Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell demonstrates ambivalence through his affiliations with Imperialist Britain, his sense of self among the Burmese, and his ties to the elephant. In the second paragraph, Orwell says: “All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.” We learn early in the essay that Orwell hates imperialism and the Burmans, already making him ambivalent. Although Orwell hates being a British official, he has a constant need to feel important and needed by the Burmans. Therefore, he is excited when called to help with a loose elephant rampaging in the bazaar. Throughout the piece, we experience Orwell’s internal conflict between the imperialist police force he is working for, and the rude Burmans people he is forced to deal with on a daily basis.
Orwell’s Persuasive Opinions How far would you go to avoid looking like a fool? Many of us would do a whole lot of things but I don’t think we would go as far as shooting an elephant. George Orwell wrote an essay in 1936 called “Shooting an Elephant,” in this essay through an incident with an elephant that happened to Orwell one day on the job, he tries to convey to his readers that “imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better ” (Orwell). This essay started out in Moulmein, in lower Burma where Orwell was a sub-divisional police officer of the town. Orwell uses the symbolic irony of the situation to compare the elephant to the downfall of imperialism.
Though both characters' conflict was similar in that truly the conflict was in how each of them felt. Orwell felt conflicted in shooting the elephant because the elephant was not harming anyone. He was under pressure to do the right thing, the right thing being shooting the elephant that had already killed a man, and Orwell was a man of authority. Orwell did shoot the elephant, but Gideon, on the other hand, was conflicted on sharing his medicinal secret to those that only wanted to profit from it, yet he wanted to share his cure because it would help so many people, but he did not. The difference between Orwell's and Gideon's internal conflict was the outcome.
“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell brings up a good question, what will a person do to not look foolish? This essay is an account of the author time spent living in Burma. Burma is a country in Southeast Asia and this was the time when the British Empire ruled most of the known world. The author is an Englishman so he was hated by all the locals. He hated his job because he worked for the government.
He says that he doesn’t need a baby in their life - “That’s the only thing that bothers us. It’s the only thing that made us unhappy”, “”… But I don’t want anybody but you. I don’t want anyone else.” They are happy with their life, drinking and traveling from one place to the other - “Just because you say I wouldn’t have doesn’t prove anything” – reveals the defensive nature in him. Ernest Hemmingway has used a lot of symbolism. “Hills” are symbolized as the bulging belly of a pregnant woman and the “White Elephants” are symbolized as a baby or the birth of a baby.
The first chapter talks about the divided self and the conscious and automatic processes of the mind; he uses a metaphor of an elephant and a rider, the elephant being the unconscious and impulsive mind and the rider being the conscious mind trying to control the animal. It is impossible for the rider to control the elephant by force, instead it has to use will power and mental strength. Learning how to control and train the elephant is the main key to self-improvement. The second main idea talks about changing your mind and fighting the automatic reactions of the elephant that guides us throughout our lives. We don’t even notice but the elephant plays a very
One such flashback “the japs’d come round and beat us for the fun of it”. By using visual imagery in an innocent woman’s gives a description of the horrendous environment of the prison camp. The inhumane beating of civilian emphasizes the grotesque nature of camps. The ongoing physical abuse from the Japanese soldiers became a motif throughout the play evokes pathos and the understanding of the barbarity of the war time environment. Another visual imagery use the emphasis the horror of war is “get down on all fours… hack at the earth” which demonstrates the intense work the prisoners had to endure; this evokes a sense of pity and gain sense of sympathy from the
In the case of’’Shooting an elephant ‘’ we find the main character to be trapped in a dilemma which is that he hates the British Empire yet he represents it in Burma . This is ironic because he represents the oppressor ,The British Empire .This is exemplified when the main
Topic: Adversity can bring out the very best of us, and the very worst as well. Adversity may both make and break a person, in this sombre and sorrowful story by Elie Wiesel the audience sees how people react to life threatening situations, whether they cave under the pressure, or come out stronger than ever. Night is the heart wrenching story of a young boy named Elie and his father, and their ultimate goal for survival whilst prisoners in a Nazi concentration camp during the Second World War. The story shows us how dehumanization can lead to death, how kindness during times of imminent death is possible, and how self-preservation can bring death to those we love. During Night, dehumanization is one of the largest factor’s to the everyday lives of the Nazi’s prisoners.
This, and the conflict leading up to their subjugation, created a climate of intense animosity towards the British that Orwell experienced first hand when he described “sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere” and how he felt “hated by large number of people” and that he was “baited whenever it seemed safe to do so” by the Burmese people. These are all examples of how Orwell experienced the Burmese’ purveying and intense hostility towards their oppressors, and Orwell himself as a member of the British regime. The Burmese hated the British, but they also feared and respected their power; specifically the power of their “magical rifle”. Yet, despite that fear and respect, the weight of their sheer numbers and the indelible culture that surrounded the British and their powerful weapons was so profound that it determined the decision that Orwell made; the decision