Subject
The subject of George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant is of himself as a young British officer being pressured into shooting an elephant. He being pressured was illustrated by the large crowd of native Burmese people waiting for the action to occur. Although he tries to persuade himself that the elephant is worth more alive, the owner would be unhappy, and he would be going against his personal wishes, the anxious crowd pushes him to kill the elephant.
Occasion
Shooting an Elephant was written during 1936, when Burma was still an Indian province, but the essay’s setting was when Burma was still under British rule. The essay’s time of creation is conveyed by his occupation, a British officer. It is also is shown through his words, such as when he says “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British,” and when he mentions the falling of the British Empire; the narrator also speaks of the British Raj. The probable place of the essay’s creation is in Moulmein, in Lower Burma. This is because the narrator begins by stating that that is where lived and worked. He also states that he had to speak and interact with the Burmese people.
The time and place of the essay’s creation influence the essay by how the narrator saw the Burmese people. He had despised the Burmese, calling them yellow faced, because at that time, the Burmese reciprocally hated the British. The native Burmese would scorn Europeans and the British thought themselves to be better than the Burmese. This mutual disgust is shown clearly in the text when the author describes his experiences with the natives and shapes the story in the way that it is told and the actions that result from it.
Audience
George Orwell’s specific audience for Shooting an Elephant is the more educated Englishman. The author’s target audience is revealed by his refined vocabulary choice, his tone, and his dissuasion of imperialism. Orwell uses vocabulary, such as “in saecula saeculorum”, that the average person may not understand. The tone is also directed towards a person of a similar class which is shown through a friendly feel; because he is a British officer, we could assume that the class is higher. It also pertains to the English people because it is about the perils of British Imperialism and is trying to dissuade against it.
The author’s general audience for the essay is for those who are imperialists and practice Imperialism. The author’s general audience is shown by the narrator saying how he is caught between the hatred of his Empire and the hatred of the native’s hatred towards him. The narrator says that as a leader, he wore a mask that he had grown into because the natives had urged him to kill the elephant. This reveals the general audience because it is more adaptable to other nations and imperialists with the idea of that the imperialist would mold into what the natives urged him to become.
Purpose
George Orwell’s purpose in Shooting an Elephant is to show how even though something may be legally acceptable, it may not be personally morally or ethically acceptable. This is revealed when he said that “… at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. [He] thought that then and [he] think[s] now that [the elephant’s] attack of ‘must’ [had] pass[ed] off”. This had shown his moral ethics and part of his reasoning to not shoot the elephant. The purpose is further revealed by how he had still went ahead and used the “magical rifle”, shot the elephant, and “legally [he] had done the right thing”.
Speaker
George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair, believes that imperialism isn’t beneficial for both parties involved. This value is illustrated by the quote “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.” This was preceded by him saying that the white man was spending his life trying to impress the native people that he so despised for hating him. This was also a swipe at the British Empire’s use of imperialism to colonize the Burmese. The quote shows that those that would try to colonize natives would slowly try to impress the natives in order to counter the natives’ hatred of those that tried to colonize. He also said that “imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner [he] chucked up [his job] and got out of it the better.”
Orwell’s use of imagery is evident in the essay when he describes the elephants’ slow and painful death. Orwell carefully accounts how each of his shots impacted the elephant; from the first shot altered all the lines in the elephant’s body, the third shot bringing the elephant down to its knees, and the following shots down its throat. This demonstrated his need to effectively kill the elephant in order to appease the natives and in order to assert his dominance. The imagery enhanced his effectiveness by giving the reader a clear picture of his calculated and thought out shots that went against his personal moral ethics.
Tone
George Orwell shows an informative and friendly tone attitude about his experience of shooting an elephant in Shooting an Elephant. These attitudes are expressed by his storytelling voice of writing. He blatantly tells the audience what he feels, such as when he tells of how guilty he feels when prisoners are being flogged or his anger towards the young Buddhist priests that “jeer at Europeans” all day long. His tone persuades us to believe that it was not completely his personal decision to shoot the elephant, but rather to need to uphold his position. After he initially shot the elephant and saw it suffering, he tried shooting its heart through its throat with no avail. His initial truthfulness and sincerity leads us to believe that he truly did regret shooting the elephant.
No comments:
Post a Comment