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Shooting an Elephant

by George Orwell

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Analysis of Rhetorical and Stylistic Devices in George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"

Summary:

George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" employs rhetorical devices such as imagery, simile, and irony to critique imperialism's dehumanizing effects. The tone is complex, reflecting Orwell's internal conflict and frustration with imperialism and his role as a colonial police officer. The narrator's candid, often bitter tone reveals his resentment toward both the oppressive British Empire and the Burmese people who mock him. The essay's tone shifts from serious and conflicted to resigned and cynical, highlighting the moral dilemmas of imperialism.

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What rhetorical devices are used in "Shooting an Elephant"?

Rhetorical devices are persuasive devices. Orwell, in this essay, wants to persuade us that imperialism is a system that is destructive towards everyone involved in it. One way he does this is through the use of imagery. Imagery is description that uses any of the five sense of sight, sound, taste, touch, and smell. For example, Orwell uses the vivid imagery of the narrator imagining the pleasure he would experience if he could "drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts." This image shocks us in its savagery and shows how imperialism dehumanizes the British who are caught up in it.

Orwell uses simile, a comparison using the words like or as , to show the power and beauty of the dying elephant, swaying us to feel sympathy for the creature. He has his narrator liken the elephant's legs to a "huge rock toppling"; the elephant's...

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trunk reaches "skyward like a tree," and his blood is like "red velvet." All of these similes impart dignity to the dying animal.

Another rhetorical device Orwell employs is irony. It is ironic, or not what we would expect, that a supposedly civilized British citizen would be glad that the elephant had killed a man, because that act has exonerated the narrator of all blame for killing the elephant. We recoil as we realize that the narrator has become so callous that he is somewhat comforted by the fact that the system can cover up the wrong he has done, even at the cost of a life. He says,

I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.

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What is the tone in the first two paragraphs of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"?

Tone, the expression of the author's attitude, plays an integral part in Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant"; his attitude toward his subject matter is a reflection of his feelings as a policeman.

In his analysis of the incident that begins with his call to attend to a frenzied elephant that is "ravaging the bazaar," Orwell expresses a rather sardonic and bitter tone because he realizes there is no diplomatic way to resolve this dilemma since it is closely tied to the very nature of imperialism. Rational human intercourse is impossible; he must demonstrate that he is one of the rulers.

In his essay, George Orwell perceives the incident as indicative of the conundrum of imperialism. Imperialism demands a particular posture on the part of the rulers as well as on the side of those who are ruled. After officer Orwell responds to the call about the ravaging elephant, he discovers a coolie's body crushed by the elephant. However, when Orwell comes upon the elephant, who has calmed down and is peacefully grazing, he observes, "I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him." Moreover, he has no desire to shoot the elephant. However, when he "look[s] at the sea of yellow faces" watching him," he knows that he will shoot it. 

And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hand, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East.

Although he is an officer of the ruling government, Orwell feels like a puppet forced to do the bidding of "the sea of the natives." They "expect" him to shoot the massive animal because he has brought a rifle with him. Because of this expectation from the natives, Orwell finds himself loathing them; they force him as an officer of the government to appear resolute, "to know his own mind and do definite things." If he does not shoot the massive animal, Orwell knows that he will appear weak and indecisive. Also, if anything were to go wrong as he approaches the elephant, the natives "would see me pursued, caught, trampled on. . . . And if that happened it was quite possible that some of them would laugh." While he does the right thing legally because the elephant has killed a man, Orwell knows that he shoots this elephant who has quieted down and is grazing peacefully "solely to avoid looking like a fool," and his action causes him to become cynical.

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What can you infer about the narrator from the first two paragraphs of "Shooting an Elephant"?

From the first two paragraphs of "Shooting an Elephant," it is clear that Orwell hates his job as a colonial police officer because of the way locals treat him. Orwell appears to resent that the locals use "petty" and small-scale forms of harassment against him, like tripping him up during a football field, rather than openly attacking the imperialist system, as he comments, "No one had the guts to raise a riot."

It is also clear Orwell has a strong sense of social justice. This is made clear by his reaction to the treatment of some Burmese prisoners who are locked in cages and beaten by their British captors. While these observations fill him with a sense of shame, he cannot escape his resentment of the locals who treat him so badly:

All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.

That Orwell recognizes these feelings as a "normal by-product" of working in such an environment suggests he is aware of the moral implications of his role in Burma and that he carried it out reluctantly.

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What is the tone of the essay "Shooting an Elephant"?

In the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, the narrator recounts an experience he has while serving as a police officer in Moulmein, a town in Lower Burma. He explains that because he is a European, the Burmese despise him. They shout jeers and insults at him and even trip him when he played soccer. This confuses him because he sympathizes with the Burmese and their plight. He has decided that the British are oppressors and that the subjugation of the locals is wrong. Sometimes the harassment of the Burmese is almost more than he can bear.

One day he receives a phone call that a crazed elephant is running loose in the village. He grabs a rifle, jumps on a pony, and goes to investigate. The elephant has been wreaking damage and killed a local. The narrator sends for a larger rifle and continues on foot. When he catches up with the elephant, it has calmed down. The narrator does not want to kill it, but he senses the mood of the huge crowd behind him and does it anyway because that is what he is expected to do.

The tone in a work of literature reflects the writer's attitude and feelings toward the subject he is writing about. The author's choice of words and phrases determine tone.

The tone in "Shooting an Elephant" is a mix of different attitudes and feelings that reflects the emotional conflict inherent in the author's situation. For example, the tone expresses the author's frustration due to the complexity of the political and social situation. The tone expresses the uncertainty the author feels between his sympathy for the Burmese and his duty to the British. The tone expresses the author's helplessness against powerful social forces that pull him in opposite directions. The tone expresses the author's anger at the British for their colonial policies and at the Burmese for their harassment. Finally, the tone expresses the irony that the author is forced to act contrary to his personal beliefs by both the British and by the Burmese.

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The tone Orwell's narrative adopts toward his readers is friendly, revealing, and informal. This approach draws the reader in. We trust his voice because he shares intimate details of his experience: he is hated, he is conflicted.

The tone is particularly effective because this approach allows the narrator to reveal glimpses of his personality that we might not otherwise get to see. For instance, when he speaks of the conflict he feels, his voice is the voice of a worker trying to do the right thing in an impossible (from his perspective) situation:"I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. Later, the narrator reveals his racism and alienation when he refers to the people watching him as a "sea of yellow faces.

Because he is so honest about his difficulties, we can follow him and share in his experience. We may never have had to shoot an elephant, but many of us have performed an act we knew in our heart to be wrong
because we felt forced to wear a particular mask or because we wanted to avoid humiliation.His tone allows us to see ourselves in him.

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Tone is the author's attitude toward the subject he is writing about. Critics have debated whether Orwell is apologizing for or condemning imperialism. Either way, Orwell is against imperialism, when a more powerful country governs and controls a less powerful one. The British ruled India in 1930s when Orwell was a colonial official. He felt the hatred, distrust, and resentment of the Burmese people toward officials of the British empire and agreed with them that Britain shouldn't have been there. Yet, he also experienced his hatred of the natives when they treated him terribly.

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What does the first paragraph of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" accomplish?

In the first paragraph, Orwell provides the setting of the short story and gives insight into the narrator's difficult position as a colonial British police officer, who is stationed in Lower Burma. The narrator recalls the anti-European sentiment throughout the town where he was stationed and elaborates on the way that the native Burmese citizens continually jeered and mocked him. The narrator is portrayed as a relatively sensitive, frustrated young man who is in a tough position. The narrator also mentions that the Buddhist priests made his life difficult and admits that the derogatory remarks and rude behavior of the Burmese citizens got on his nerves. Orwell is able to illustrate the difficult life of a young, inexperienced British police officer stationed in an occupied foreign land. The first paragraph of "Shooting an Elephant" allows the reader to sympathize with the narrator and understand the daily difficulties he faces as an authoritative colonial figure in a foreign land. While the native Burmese citizens do not have the "guts" to riot, they torment their oppressors by mocking and ridiculing them. The narrator is clearly frustrated with being insulted on an everyday basis and is sick of being bullied by the native Burmese citizens.

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Why does Orwell begin his narrative in the third paragraph of "Shooting an Elephant"?

The first two paragraphs of this excellent and thought provoking essay serve to establish the context of the narrative of the shooting of the elephant, point towards the conflicted feelings that Orwell feels as a colonial officer, and lastly, indicates the message of the entire essay. In many ways, they are the most important parts of the entire essay - the actual story of shooting the elephant just proves what Orwell has already stated.

In these paragraphs, on the one hand, Orwell had decided that he "was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British." Yet, on the other hand, he talks of his "rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible" and he dreams of the joy of bayoneting a Buddhist priest. Clearly this irony points towards some conflicted feelings and the cultural conflicts of colonialism.

The second paragraph tells us what Orwell learnt from the elephant narrative and thus points towards the message of the essay:

One day something happened which in a roundabout way was enlightening. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism - the real motives for which despotic governments act.

It is these "real motives" that are explored through the rest of the essay and the way that the actual power and position that white men assume destroys their own "freedom" and converts them into "absurd puppets" who are "pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind."

Thus the first two paragraphs are crucial for establishing the setting, establishing the conflicted loyalties of the narrator and pointing towards the overarching message of this essay.

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What are the tone and setting of "Shooting an Elephant"?

In a clever and typically British wry remark, the introductory sentence of "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell indicates the relationship between the Burmese and himself, a relationship that extends to the one between the British and the Burmese people:

In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.

Later in the passage, Orwell writes,

Theoretically--and secretly, of course--I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressor, the British.  As for the job I was doing. 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.

Thus, it can be deduced from statements such as the above-mentioned that Orwell resents his post with what he calls as a "despotic government."  For close readers, those words that indicate the author's feelings are what determine the author's attitude or tone toward his subject. And, of course, Orwell's actions, such as his reluctance to perform his assignment suggest as well that he is not in agreement with what his duties demand.

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The setting of this story is Burma, what is now Myanmar.  The story is set some time in the 1920s or 1930s.  At that time, Burma was a colony of the British Empire.  This fact really has an impact on the setting and the tone of the story.  It impacts the setting because the narrator is one of very few white people among a population of Asians.

I would say that the tone of the story is somewhat regretful and unhappy.  The narrator is thinking back on a part of his life when he did something, when he was forced to do something, that he did not want to do.  He regrets having shot the elephant, but more to the point he regrets having been part of colonialism and imperialism.  He thinks those were harmful to both colonized and colonizers and he regrets his involvement.

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Does George Orwell use stylistic devices, such as irony or metaphor, in "Shooting An Elephant"?

In "Shooting An Elephant," Orwell employs a number of stylistic devices to reinforce the story's themes and key ideas. There is a strong element of situational irony, for instance, through Orwell's description of his role as a police officer. While we might expect Orwell to be a figure of power and authority, his situation is ironic because the opposite happens: we learn that he has much sympathy for the plight of those he governs and that he only shoots the elephant to avoid "looking a fool."

Orwell also uses metaphors in the story. Here is one example:

I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.

By comparing the will of the people to a physical force, Orwell emphasises the idea that as a colonial officer, he is forced to act in a particular way. This, he argues, illustrates the true nature of imperialism: that it exploits the imperialists as much as those who are colonised. 

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What is the purpose of the first two paragraphs in 'Shooting an Elephant'?

The first two paragraphs set the context for all that follows. They define imperialism, the narrator’s point of view in relation to it, and they also characterize the dynamics of the village where he lived during the time of the incident.  It is important for us to know that he didn’t like what he was doing, for this helps us understand the fact that he acted against his moral conscience in killing the elephant—he does it to save face. These paragraphs establish the “ethos” of the narrator. Because of what he says here, we understand him as reasonable, a man with self-understanding, someone we will believe as he goes about telling the story. Without this foundation, we might not fully perceive the irony of the story, which is that in killing the elephant he is “being ruled” even though he is the man in power. We sympathize with him and fully understand the act he commits.

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