Shooting an Elephant by orwel essays

Shooting an Elephant by orwel essays In George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant, he takes on the role of a Burma sub divisional police officer. Orwell takes on a job even though he dislikes and does not care not for the people he has to deal with. This can be seen throughout Orwell's essay in his word choice to describe the people, and his job, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of empire at close quarters(658). Orwell has to deal with a corrupt empire in which he is too cowardly to do anything about. If Orwell were in a different setting this too would have a big effect on his decision-making, as well as his feelings for these people. Orwell must make a decision about his job or his job is going to make a decision for him. Orwells use of word choice, color, and setting, help determine his feelings towards the Burmese people and the elephant. The native Burmese do not take kindly to Orwell; they take every opportunity to verbally and physically attack him. One day he encountered a situation involving an elephant that had gone "must." The elephant had ransacked parts of town and he had killed a coolie. Orwell was faced with a difficult decision when it came to dealing with the elephant. He had a gun that could kill the elephant, but in the beginning, he was only carrying it if the elephant turned on him. When he realized the elephant had calmed down, he decided not to shoot it. However, when he turned and saw some Burmese behind him, he knew he had to kill the elephant, for two reasons. First, the Burmese were waiting for him to shoot the elephant so they could have the meat. Second, Orwell felt he needed to make the kill to save face and not look like a fool. Although some people did not agree with his decision, he knew he had to do it. Orwell had to please the people or else he would have been ridiculed and further tor tured by the people. ...