In Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant," he goes through several inner conflicts while stationed in Moulmein, Burma. One of these conflicts is that he longs for acceptance from the Burmese. Orwell states "As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so" (lines 5-6) which is an example which shows he is not respected as he wishes to be. Orwell also struggles with being antagonized by the people of Moulmein. He says "in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European
Is pride so important in one’s life that there is a need to take another life in order to keep it? In “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, Orwell tells about an event from his life in which he had to make a choice, a choice of which was more important his pride or his morals. I do not agree with how Orwell handles this particular situation and think that he should have listened to the voice of reason in his head. Orwell is a young British police officer who is very unhappy with his life. He
officers to act like tyrants, it is mainly understood that where imperialism is in charge, there also exists tyranny. Analyzing George Orwell`s essay “Shooting an Elephant”, it becomes clearer that even though the man is unwilling to act like a tyrant, he is forced by the Empire and people to close his eyes to his values. In his essay “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell describes the struggle of a British officer, in other words a man who has abandoned his own morals, who exists only
In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell highlights the struggle of a British officer who feels compelled by the Burmese people to kill a rampant elephant in order to follow his duty of being a police officer of Burma. Orwell confronts the elephant with a gun in the story and realizes that, “when a white man turns tyrant, it is his own freedom he destroys.” (Pg.6 3rd paragraph) This sentence provides an excellent thesis for the story. Because Orwell was in a position of authority, he had
To Shoot or Not to Shoot In George Orwell’s’ essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, he finds himself in a personal struggle on whether or not to shoot an elephant. The story is set in Moulmein, located in Lower Burma, where George Orwell was disliked by the Burmans because he was European. One day there was an incident where a tame elephant went crazy and escaped from its owner. Orwell was a police officer in the town when this happened and he was called to help. The natives who once hated Orwell looked
inspiration; his exigent need for expression, need for justice, need for clarification. With his expository prose, he intended to reveal injustices and do so as precisely as possible. The insight given from his essay can be clearly translated to his other compositions, “Shooting an Elephant” and “A Hanging”, in which his motivations and personal opinions are apparent.
Imperialism is defined as a policy of when one county extends it is power and influence over other countries, through use of diplomacy or military force. Imperialism is the centre topic in the essay, “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. In the essay, he illustrates the effects of imperialism on Burmese who were under the British police and on himself while he worked for the British. When individuals work under imperialism, then they are negatively impacted, they are often mistreated by the citizens
In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell the narrator is working as an Imperial policeman in the British occupied Burma where he questions the methods of imperialism used by the British. He describes the hatred the Burmese had towards Europeans, him specifically, which confused him as he considered himself on their side and hated the evilness of imperialism. One day an incident which he describes as ‘enlightening’ occurred. He reviewed a phone call from a fellow officer informing him
The short story known as Shooting an Elephant and an excerpt called Two Views of a River contain similar literary elements, writing styles, and common themes. The author of Shooting an Elephant is George Orwell, and the author of Life on the Mississippi (where the excerpt was derived) is Mark Twain. Theme Both short stories use a similar theme. The theme of Shooting an Elephant is that are two choices, and the correct choice depends on the chooser. The theme of Two Views of a River is there are
"Shooting an Elephant" is George Orwell's wracking and painfully honest tale of his experiences as a police officer in imperial Burma. In the narrative, Orwell retells the time he had to mull over a critical decision that involved an elephant that had gone mad. In his work, Orwell argues that he shouldn’t shoot the animal because the owner was on his way to tame the wild beast and was just morally not the right thing to do. In the end he felt that he needed to do what the surrounding mob of people