– Shooting an elephant
domingo diciembre 12th 2010, 22:38
Filed under: Discurso Político

Shooting an Elephant is an essay written by George Orwell. It is the conflict between what the author believes as a humban being, and what he believes as an imperial police officer; as he is present at the beginni

ng of the story. To do that, the author uses imagery and anecdotes to exemplify his feelings and describe the circumstances, as also the use of metaphors.

As we already explained in the first paper with Animal Farm, Orwell usually made use of political symbolism, in order to represent a political standpoint. The following examples of symbols are used in Shooting an Elephant:

    • The mad elephant: symbol of the British Empire. As it is powerful, the Empire too. When the elephant assaults the bazaar, it symbolizes the British Empire attacking the economy of Burma. When he kills the coolie, he represents the British oppressing the natives.

    • Then we have the dead coolie: it is a symbol of the oppressed Burmese.

    • Mud: it is the symbol of the squalor in which the Burmese must live under British rule.

Another characteristic, that can also be included in the symbolism, used by Orwell is the use of metaphors. He does it to represent his feelings about imperialism, the internal conflicht between his personal morals, and his duty to his country.

There is a clue point along the story and it is the final decision the narrator has to take: to kill the elephant or not. He fins himself in a difficult situation involving an elephant. The fate of the animal lies in Orwell’s hands. Only he can make the final decision, so he kills the elephant which lays dying in a pool of blood. Orwell wins the sympathy of readers by expressing the pressure he feels as an Anglo-Indian in Burma, showing compassion for the dying animal.

Shooting an Elephant is an important text in modern British literature and has generated more criticism than any other comparable short piece. Orwell expressed here his conflicting views regarding imperialism, by proving his power and dignity to the natives presenting imperialism metaphorically through the use of animals (as he already did in Animal Farm). He used the elephant as a symbol of imperialism representing power as an untamed animal that has control over the village.

This story is one of the most widely studied items of the modern Engligh language.





     
No hay comentarios so far



Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

(required)

(required)



¡IMPORTANTE! Responde a la pregunta: ¿Cuál es el valor de 5 4 ?