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Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant 'And Two Views Of A River'

Good Essays

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 …show more content…

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.

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