End of Year Shooting a River
Collin Hanes
Pre-AP 9th
M. Pavlich
May 8, 2015
End of Year Shooting a River
Introduction
The narratives Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell and Two Views of a River is an excerpt from Mark Twain’s autobiography Life on the Mississippi both narratives go into detail the effects of human nature on people and how they must co-exist with each other.
Theme
The theme presented by the narrative Shooting an Elephant is “human nature, and therefore the universal morality which grows from an awareness of nature” (Thomas Bertonneau, 2002). Throughout his narrative, George identifies characteristics of a society where he is forced into killing an elephant because he is afraid if he doesn't he will be called
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Twain compares his views of the river from when he was a young river boy to a captain and his experiences along the way. He views the river a way a passenger would not thinking about the dangers in the river like trees and strong currents. Not until he comes back and becomes a captain does he view the river is almost a bad way looking for even the slightest things. From reading only Twain’s text one would assume that being a Captain would cause someone to not be able to see the rivers beauty ever again, this is not true though. The human nature in this narrative is everyone only seeing the river’s natural beauty and not what lies below the surface that a riverboat captain like Mark Twain …show more content…
Like George everyone has been in a situation where they must make a decision were both outcomes are kinda bad. Like George we must make a decision and stick with it. George had the decision to not kill the elephant and leave it be or kill it. If he didn’t kill it he would be mocked by the locals or kill the elephant and gain the respect of the village. He made a decision and he stuck with it even defending his answer.
The narrative Two Views of a River is also an allusion to seeing anything in a certain way from two perspectives. Mark Twain gives the river quasi-human characteristics. This can be applied to anything in a certain sense even humans. Mark saw something as a young boy and could only see the good. But after seeing it for too long and having to see it a different way he sees only the bad things. But like the George he overcame the issues he had and was able to see the good in the river he once thought was the greatest as a young boy.
Both of these narratives share a common literary element with is allusion. They both involve issues that can relate to other issues and problems we have. Both authors seemed to share a common problem of seeing a great thing and either having to kill it or never see it the same again. But in both of these the authors are able to go on with life after the decisions they made and the outcomes.
“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell, first published in the journal New Writing in 1936. In this essay, the author tells his own story about when he was working as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.
The story “Shooting an Elephant” is told by an ongoing and first person narrator, who was committed to events he was faced with and obtained insight and wisdom from these adventures even though he struggled internally and externally.
As a European white man in the British colony of India, George Orwell, in his narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, describes one of his most memorable events while living in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma. Orwell’s purpose is to share the absolute horror of living in imperialism. He adopts a tense tone throughout his essay by using vivid description and gruesome imagery in order to relate the incident with the elephant to what it is like to live in imperialism.
“Shooting an Elephant” is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man, Orwell, who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, along with the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He states, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.
George Orwell who wrote a narrative essay Shooting an Elephant” has a tense tone of literature towards his life. He is using a stressed tone due to peer pressure, and lack of confidence toward himself as he is an imperialist who came to protect uphold the laws. He's difficult attitude sets the scene for the story in his eyes. Throughout the story the concept of his decisions and action will be projected through the uses of diction; the write words to express his feelings.
In “Life On the Mississippi” by Mark Twain, the author clarifies his experience as a river steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River and how his visualization of the river changed from positive to negative throughout the story.
The story of Shooting an Elephant is a short story that shows the internal struggle of a man who tries to figure out for himself if he values self respect more or others respect more. The main character is a European who works for the sub-divisional police in South East Asia. He is stationed in Burma where, even though he hates the people, he hopes the Burmese win the war. Hatred for the Burmese people is fueled by their mocking him and treatment towards him with absolutely no respect and little regard. In addition, even though the man shoots the elephant, he earlier stated that he had absolutely no resolve in him to shoot the elephant. His decision to not kill the elephant comes crumbling down when he realizes the Burmese will take notice of him if he shoots the elephant. Why would he care about what the Burmese thought of him if they hated him anyway? This is because his hatred for the Burmese is little in comparison to how much he wishes for respect and recognition. The
George Orwell describes to us in “Shooting an elephant” the struggle that his character faces when to win the mobs approval and respect when he shoots down an innocent animal and sacrifices what he believes to be right. Orwell is a police officer in Moulmein, during the period of the British occupation of Burma. An escaped elephant gives him the opportunity to prove himself in front of his people and to be able to become a “somebody” on the social
. By the type of language and the choice of words that the author used to write his essay, it is very likely that it was written for the British people, to make them aware of the injustice and cruelty of Imperialism in the colonies. The author’s aim is to make the reader feel disturbed and uneasy by describing in detail his negative experiences in India. This rhetorical analysis explores the success of the author in portraying the negative impact that Imperialism had on those being governed under it, but also on the impact on those in power. The way Orwell used the words for describing the scene of shooting the elephant, his aim was to get the reader’s mind to understand the injustice of Britain’s rule over the natives. While Shooting an
Twain's understanding of the river was not very strong at first. He understand change of perspective of the river throughout his journey. At first Twain’s view of the river was beautiful and alluring but as time went by he started seeing it was boring and old. In the first paragraph of the story, the author uses an analogy to show how he felt about the river. “And it was a book to be read once and thrown aside for it had a new story to tell everyday.” This analogy shows Twain’s point of view on the river at this time. The Mississippi River in his eyes at this time is positive, and he enjoys the time he gets to spend on the river while doing his job. As Mark Twain’s time on the river he changes how he views it from being negative to
The protagonist of the excerpt is enraptured by the expanse of knowledge the river has to offer and promptly introduces the comparison to a book. He observes that, akin to reading a
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, is an interesting essay that shows the audience the effect of insecurity and peer pressure. The essay starts off with setting up what exactly Orwell is dealing with in Moulmein. While he holds symbolic authority and military supremacy and is also “theoretically —and secretly” on their side by being opposed to the oppressive British empire he serves, He is an outsider, and he is still powerless to stop their insults and abuse he receives from oppressed Burmese. When an elephant causes mayhem around the town Orwell takes charge of trying to find it. When the creatures is seen nearby, Orwell asks for a gun. This leads for him a mistake he unintentionally made. He was not planning on to shooting the elephant,
Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell merely trying to not look like a fool, an inner battle testing his morality and mind. The story taking place in Burma, the protagonist, a British police officer named George Orwell. Orwell is picked on and loathed by the Burmese, constantly enduring their tricks and pure despisement. The story truly starts when he is called into do something about a stray elephant who is raging at a bazaar. Once he arrives at the scene him, a Burmese sub-inspector and some Indian constables discover a dead body a coolie). The coolie had been killed by the raging elephant, upon discovering the gruesome scene, the office requests an elephant rifle be brought to him. The orderly after delivering the rifle, tells Orwell the location
In the passage “Two Ways of Seeing a River,” author Mark Twain attempts to share the feelings of loss he experienced after he was disillusioned to the beauty of the Mississippi River. Twain was a famous Nineteenth century author who had previously worked as a steamboat captain and who grew up along the river. The organization of the paragraphs in relation to each other is linear, and the content of each paragraph is dominated by a different rhetorical device.
The glorious days of the imperial giants have passed, marking the death of the infamous and grandiose era of imperialism. George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant, deals with the evils of imperialism. The unjust shooting of an elephant in Orwell's story is the central focus from which Orwell builds his argument through the two dominant characters, the elephant and its executioner. The British officer, the executioner, acts as a symbol of the imperial country, while the elephant symbolizes the victim of imperialism. Together, the solider and the elephant turns this tragic anecdote into an attack on the institution of imperialism.