On January 21, 1950 Orwell died from tuberculosis (Abcarian 1406). Among his many accomplished works is the non-fictional story, “Shooting an Elephant,” which boldly established his stand on imperialism. This story is of the time when Orwell went to Burma and served in the Indian Imperial Police as an assistant superintendent in 1922 since he lacked means to attend an university (Abcarian 1406). During the time of imperialistic rule, the great empires dominated many subordinate countries to exploit their resources. These European empires believed it was, “the white man’s burden” to civilize the people they called heathens and savages of these countries.
148), the movement staged many protests against prejudiced Indian rights leading up to the siege at Wounded Knee. Wounded Knee was a rebellion of the extension of the White government control, by the Indians. The Whites established a government and military quickly after the colonisation of America that pacified the Indians in order to gain control of resources. This is the natural order of colonisation and with this idea combined with the fact that these Indians were educated (as by decree of the very same government), this caused the uprising against their White oppressors by the Indians, (Bodley, 1999, p.60). It seemed a disaster waiting to happen.
Orwell feels like an outcast rebel, he wants the Burmese to stand up against the British Empire. Young Orwell sets the tone of how he is torn between doing his job and doing what was morally and ethically right. (shooting the elephant or letting it live) 3. Some analogies that Orwell uses are: the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow, grandmotherly. They watched me like a conjurer about to perform a trick.
“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.
Orwell refers to himself as being “young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East,” (Orwell) but according to Peter Firchow “even though Orwell had joined the Imperial Indian Police, thereby making an apparently overt anti-intellectual choice rather than go to university, as most of his classmates at Eton did, he was definitely not uneducated or even unsophisticated” (Firchow, 81). “Shooting an Elephant” was written in the first person point of view, which I feel makes the writer and the
Orwell is a good writer when it comes to imperialism, fascism and communism whereas Rodriquez is well known for his editorial writing on Mexican-American identity, bilingual education, gun control and drugs (The Trans-Canada Writer). Shooting an Elephant is about Orwell confronting the dilemma of having to shoot an elephant in must. Mexicans Deserve More Than La Mordida is about the policemen in Mexico taking advantage of their power asking for “mordidas”; money. George Orwell and Joe
INTRODUCTON -Attention Getter: Have you ever wondered what the punishment would be for an animal if it killed a human being? Should it be given a death penalty like human murderers in fear that it would kill again? Should it be deemed a simple accident? People living in Kingsport, Tennessee had to make this decision in 1916 when a 5 ton elephant killed her trainer. -Statement of Purpose: In this speech I am going to tell you the story of Murderous Mary and the day the hung the elephant.
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
“Many Americans held the president personally to blame for the crisis and began calling the shantytowns that unemployed people established on the outskirts of cities “Hoovervilles” (B, 676; CD) The 1930’s also show examples of our continuing inequality in America. As the white males began to lose their jobs and some African Americans continued to work, people believed in this crisis white males had first priority when it came to jobs and started replacing the African Americans. (B, 665; CD) Mexicans during the depression were rounded up and were forced to
In the last decade, there have been numerous cases of stampeding elephants in Africa that are destroying villages. In some cases these elephants are engaging in intercourse with rhinos. This postulate derives from the slaughter of the elder male elephants being continuously hunted. As a result, male calves are acting out of their innate instinct because the elders have been massacred. If the natural order of nature is forsaken, the next generation of people will study the bones of the extinct elephant.