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.
When Orwell fires the first and second shot the elephant did not hit the ground, only after the third shot did the elephant collapse. Orwell then tries to put the elephant out of its misery by firing his pistol several times, but the elephant still continued to live. 2. The first two paragraphs set the scene and tone for the readers to have a better understanding of the events that will happen. Orwell feels like an outcast rebel, he wants the Burmese to stand up against the British Empire.
Hope B. Torres Prof. Thomas Bland English 151 September 23, 2014 Shooting an Elephant vs. Mexicans Deserve More Than La Mordida Shooting an Elephant and Mexicans Deserve More Than La Mordida are two essay that are being written to argue and make a point about important topics, the British Imperialists and “La Mordida” in Mexico. They are telling a story in which they both had to make decisions in being a part of something that, really, wasn't a good thing; shooting an elephant or giving the police money - they both caved into peer pressure. Both writers persuade us by using three types of appeals; ethos, pathos and logos. Both authors start off by introducing their backgrounds, this helps us with an idea of what the essay will be about. By using this way of introduction we are able to know the character and therefore, we are able to trust them and know that they are accredited.
Why don’t you come and be saved? Oh, Lamb of God! Why don’t you come? (180).” In “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell illustrates the peer-pressure put on him by explaining the number of people following him. He first starts by saying: “As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me (287).” The crowd misunderstood him when he was holding the gun.
Then Edward, a pale, scarred face, weird hair, black clothes and “scissor” hands appeared. “Don’t go.” Edward said when he first saw Peg and Peg were about leaving. This shows he doesn’t want to be lonely and which made the viewers sympathetic. PARAGRAPH 2 –BOOK In “A Cage of butterflies” the main technique is the way Caswell alternates between first and third person. Throughout this novel all the odd chapters have been first person using different characters from the story and the even chapters are all third person with the narrator telling the story.
The danger this elephant brought to the people was evident. The author did not have the intention at first to kill the elephant but brought an elephant rifle for protection. This caused people to follow out of curiosity. The elephant was now peacefully grazing in some fields as the author approaches. Seeing the animal so peaceful made him question what to do next.
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.
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.
After a rampant elephant kills a man, Orwell is in a position where he feels he has to kill the elephant. George Orwell does not want to shoot the elephant, yet the circumstance drives him to it. If I were in his position, I would not have given in to
Religion In her book, The Harmless People, Elizabeth Marshall Thomas states, “The Bushmen as well as the gods ignore the suffering of animals” (Thomas 52). The Bushmen’s god, Pishiboro, is a hunter, and thus unconcerned with the welfare of the animals he hunts. As a result, the Bushmen “regard animals with great detachment” (67). In one of the legends about the god Pishiboro, he was married to an elephant. His brother craftily killed her one day in Pishiboro’s absence, afterwards pointing out to Pishiboro that she was an animal, and he had been “married to meat”; at this realization, Pishiboro gladly helps his brother skin the elephant, cuts off a piece of her meat