The Shooting An Elephant

The injection An ElephantThe vote counter, the autobiographic author, at erstwhile faces public the most scarcely ein truthwherely acts as a puppet within the script that is his support. He imposes the existenceipulation of each side of the congenital concourse and the conquerors of Burma, him ego cosmos a police officer, some iodin who should be clear go away set and wrong and the law and entirely the murkiness of what is the real mightilyfulness. The largest satire cosmos the elephant in the room beingness that he sees he should non kill the elephant and yet feels has to and vacillates in his logic to this conclusion and n unrivaledtheless(prenominal) once a finis made fire see the several interpretations of what is the legality and yet he make loves the truth and the truth is that the autochthonic state employ the eiron, the elephant, to objet dartipulate him to kill the elephant which was re every(prenominal)y based on him non scatty them to laugh at him or humiliation. He deceives himself into believing this when at either(prenominal) clip he could take defend of the s clutchlight.The t throws muckle believe they be existenceipulating the narrator yet the narrators sees that he is being hu pieceityipulated and yet allows it to happen in either case being carried a air with mob triumph. The towns good deal feel a pauperisationiness of control of their own bunch similar to the fate of the elephant and yet also feed upon the elephant which is the British control in a enabling situation for all. But is it non really the police officer who manipulates them by asking for elephant rifle knowing that they impart assume he wishes to shoot the elephant. So the police officer narrator has cr annihilateed his own conflict by miss of control of a situation because he feels he has no control.The audition I assume to be the reader and the reader is fooled to think this is a score much everywhere almost an inc ident of a wild elephant yet foreshadowing of the narrator leads to believe is a story about the chance upon of the British conglomerate yet is really the fall of an soul and his beliefs about the greater deportment-time-threatening and miss of control of his own heart. The death of the elephant is brought on by even the consultation of the reader as once the elephant fall his suffering is unbearable and sooner of wishing a recovery for the elephant even the audience wishes a much peaceful death. The story is about the individual and yet still about the w repair of the circumstances of British rule scarce also really about us all as audience. Audience assumes an outside witness, an outside entity that has no control, just as the indigenous townspeople feel they have no control, and just as the British rulers with the police officer repre displaceing that in this story feels he also has no control. So ar we all audience? To make any decision even no decision is a deci sion and the musical note of lack of control or leave behind seems the overriding feeling of all knotted in the story, yet the purpose of the story is to instigate change and to right wrongs, yet why was a wrong through with(p) at all. The audience is helpless precisely only helpless because of being an audience instead of a player. I believe that to be the real theme of the story.Overcoming a sense of helplessness while following what is believed a preset of ideas and codes of require and seeing that no decision is a decision. Things do not merely happen on their own. We are all players in the play that is our life and that of all people. The greatest sarcasm of Or draw ups Shooting an Elephant is that the many have no control or that there is control. It is the collapse of truth, a collapse of justification, and a self examination of motivation that will overcome the irony of the accurate sad sad situation.Central to Orwells short story is the elephant in the room, so lar ge, so unspoken, yet still there no matter what happens. In Shooting an Elephant Orwell brilliantly bring by means ofs a story rich in irony and symbolism wish well a crystal or kernel of study sparkling with many facets depending on the viewpoint of who is looking at it. To the narrator, the autobiographical George Orwell as is obvious from the dividing lineage, the elephant symbolizes the British Empire and right in separate deuce he foreshadows with stuck between hat blushing(a) of empire served and rage against poisonous spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible which identifies the interior rage and conflicting ideas within the thoughts of the narrator made physical by the elephant. The elephant represents his feelings towards the British Empire, toward the feeling that he is merely a puppet. So at an individual level of feelings of doing what is expected of him to save face everlastingly and a greater level as a part of the machine that as a whole is the British Empire.As the narrator approaches the elephant his feelings vacillates between feeling he should not shoot the elephant and that he has to shoot the elephant and is really shown by the weather of the day for weather is always symbolic in a story. The muddy land that takes over and the cloud, stuffy good morning at the beginning of the rains which also symbolizes the elephant apparently content and silent eating the grasses yet caught in the mud at a lower place his feet. The narrator believing he does not need to kill the elephant and the mud making his natural selection or blaming his choice on the mud and the will of the mob. It is as if stepping in mud where you step to go forward and are pulled in as if by no choice and you break free as you step forward and yet are drawn right back into the mud. It is the mud that is the narrators reason for not loss closer to elephant and testing its temperament. It is the mud that the native townsperson sunk into a hole of m ud.As the time to shoot the elephant and just after the narrator shoots the elephant the tally of the symbol of the elephant to the British Empire becomes more apparent and more transmit after several change in logic patterns of no he does not have to kill the elephant and yes he does have to kill the elephant. In paragraph Orwell writes,And it was at this min, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I rootage grasped the hollowness, the guiltinessy of the smock mans dominion in the East. present was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd seemingly the leading actor of the piece besides in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a cast of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend hi s life in arduous to impress the natives, and so in every crisis he has got to do what the natives expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant.To the townspeople the elephant also symbolizes the British Empire but in an immediate way it symbolizes their lust and the elephant was food but also a symbol of their hunger to have freedom, freedom that the elephant in the room symbolized the British Empire. The attitudes of accepting what is seems prevalent of the townspeople in an ambivalence as to where the elephant went, where he was, and where he was red ink, and what he did, and yet, once the elephant rifle was sent for, a new sense of importance and destiny and change took over the townspeople as they followed the narrator and crowds grew to see the shooting of the elephant as seen in paragraph five They had not shown much take in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot. It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an side of meat crowd besides they wanted the meet. In paragraph 11 when the first shot is fired at the elephant, head the devilish roar of mirthfulness that went up from the crowd. In paragraph twelve it was obvious that the elephant would neer spring again, but he was not curtly. Yet the Burmans were already racing away the narrator across the mud to the elephant and in paragraph 13 it fix Burmans were bringing dash and baskets even before I left, and I was t centenarian they had bleak his body almost to the bones by the afternoon. Showing the hunger of the people, the restlessness, the interest when the empire is toppled. So the immediate symbolism of the elephant to the people is food and hunger but the real symbolism is queen and self determination and that makes the elephant the British Empire.Vivid imagery of all the senses paint a picture in the mind of the reader of George Orwells A Hanging in a way that appe ars effortless detailed description of what was by chance a half second of time filled with imagery that is symbolic in nature and analysis. The coal scuttle description of the morning layered with the imagery of the dog running some the yard and the sneak out water the prisoner had stepped aroundThe first sentence of the story subjects with a vivid picture of the morning, It was Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly light like yellow tin foil, was slanting over the richly walls into the jail yard. This foreshadows sickly human condition of the second sentence, We were time lag outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like belittled wolf cages. And continuing on to give dimensions and sparse furnishing of plank bed and pot of drinking water of death row. The totality of the picture of degradation like a zoo with prisoners on display out in the open stripped down of their humanity and treated like animals.What appears interesting is th at no one is given a name so it is a timeless tale of any man and anyones defendion. The only one given a name was Francis who is the head jailer whom the superintendent of the jail prodding cite down with a stick, the army doctor telling Francis that the prisoner ought to have been dead by this time and complain that not ready yet.Quite proto(prenominal) in the story the dog appears and is through and throughout the story. The imagery of the dog so full of life and running around full of love and friendship, betrothal and noise runs around all the proceedings full of glee. It sees all creation and loves them and goes for the prisoner to lick his face. As a reader and as the narrator transfers feeling and emotion to the dog of living in that moment glad to be alive. But the dog runs futilely around during the execution symbolizing life and human connection. Only the dog appears to whimper and answer the call or chant of the prisoner in his last moments which the author descri bes not as a unearthly plea to the gods, not as a please help me, but scarce as the tolling of a damage as if only the dog hears the bell and responds like Pavlovs dogs instinct and religious rite have made the humans desensitized to the kills and only the dog can charter feelings. The dog is contained before the execution and when set free afterwards goes to the hung man to sniff him and is the somber shock stillness and whimpering of the shock and horror of killing another life full of life for what reason the dog knows not just as the reader and the narrator knows not. So we can not feel , so feelings are transferred upon the dog.An important imagery foreshadowed with the description of the morning of rains was the puddle. The puddle also seemed a transferring of mood of the entire story to self analysis of what am I really doing here and why from the narrator. The puddle yes is from the rain of the morning but maybe a reflection of life, a puddle in the life of an ocean o f a man, the waters of life, representing perchance the shortness of a life so a puddle. The puddle is observe because the condemned man steps around the puddle and the narrator sees that as such(prenominal) a truly human and alive moment but til that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, cognizant man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle, I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.(note again water imagery) So the rational act of sentiment and living and analyzing to avoid the puddle stood for the struggling for freedom, a time to react and avoid something simple, a certain awareness of surroundings and the futility of it all. That in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone one mind less, one humankind less which seems a play on words one mind less mindless, one world less worthless/worldless so the mindless making of a worldless with one life less and no one i s noticing.After the execution the dog sobered and conscious of having misbehaved itself, slipped after them. And the prisoners ate their breakfast like any other morning. And a Eurasian male child approaches the narrator stating do you know, sir, our friend, when he heard his solicitation had been brush off, he pissed on the floor of his cell. From fright. As an opening line to make people laugh followed by the state of matterment take one of my cigarettes, sir, do you not admire my new silver case and states its price as if beauty and enjoyment of life can be sold.As if to reinforce the imagery in case the reader did not draw off the sickening return to normal and laugh at anothers grief and death, the only one with a name, Francis, the jailer, tells of horrific cases where the doctor was obliged to go beneath the gallows and pull the prisoners legs to ensure decease. Most disagreeable. Would not want to do any dirty work since it was noted that the executioner was actually a nother pronounce so again distancing themselves from the taking of the life of another human being and making it dehumanized. And again as if we did not get the dehumanizing nature of the purlieu laughing and whisky all within one hundred yards of the hung manA powerful letter in response to an age old excuse of give it time meaning never done in a way that answers each and every accusation of the white religious leaders of the sec. The central idea seems to be that the time is NOW and in the words of Martin Luther King younger, In arbiter anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And the belief that we are all one people caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, fastened in a single garment of destiny. some(prenominal) affects one directly affects all indirectly. It is a letter of good and of good and justice for all to live as one with steps of non personnel towards this stated cl beforehand(predicate) and honestly and statements backed up by diachronic leaders of faith and American presidents throughout history as well as going over the history of the suppression of people of African descent throughout the history of the United States and put with detailed empathy of how do you tell a small child she can not go to an amusement park or answer a small boy the call into question of why do white people hate cutting people and the simple facts that as a black man locomotion across the country denied a place to sleep, denied a place to drink, to eat and makes a very human picture of the realities of this discrimination and moral strains of why this is wrong.Several religious leaders throughout time were quoted and several presidents reinforcing Kings statements that justice too long delayed is justice denied. And the truth that individuals may see the moral light and give up unjust posture but as Reinhold Niebuhr reminded us, groups are more immoral than individuals and the only way to adjure injustice is with love and passive resistance. The condescending views of the middle of the roaders with shallow bridal of people of good will is almost worse for their lukewarm credenza only lacks conviction in a shallow way. Socrates search for truth and saying what was right and early Christians and Jews in their trials for truth and borrowing consort his work with those of early prophets.Martin Luther King Jr. tells of his own struggles within his own people as he struggles to be the peacemaker between though who have cowed down through centuries of abuse to a quiet acceptance that that is the way things are and the militant black power nominal head of Elijah Muhammads Muslim movement calling for violence and race wars and to show all his brown, yellow, black, red and white brothers that we are all one and what hurts one, hurts us all. His glib-tongued testify is flawlessly crafted and brilliant. The tone is precise, neither angry nor bitter nor demanding but simply factual, yet very firm and brilliantly written. It is sh own that his patience, faith and love of all humankind will not be broken. No violence on the part of his movement which shows the violent nature of those whose hearts he is trying to change, to force to change to follow laws of the constitution and the supreme court guaranteeing equate rights for all and invariable rights to pursue life and happiness. His answer to being called an extremist is Was Jesus an extremist? and quoted the bible of Jesus words Love your enemies, conjure them that curse you, pray for them that despitefully use you. Showing how the persecution of those in his movement is like persecuting Christ. The hypocrisy and conformity of the religious leaders and people of the south is shown in black and white. The judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If the church of today does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authentic ring, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the 20th century Telling how the youth of the country are dishearten with abhorrence and disappointment of the church But even if the church does not come to the aid of justice, I have no despair about the future. We will reach the terminus of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom. Abused and scorned though we may be, our destiny is tied up with the destiny of America. The decisive hour is now for the Church to be truly Godly or to live in hollowness.Martin Luther King Jr. even answers the praise of the peaceful nature of the Birmingham police and detailed listings of brutalities and anything but peaceful but notes that publicly when there are others they go through the appearances of appearing peaceful.The use of language easily understood by the simplest man makes his arguments easy to follow., The structure of the letter addressing one by one the points of the letter of religious white southern leaders makes it eas y for them to follow each of his answers to their premises. The style of writing is that of an enlightened and deeply religious and loving man who desires to leave in peace with all his brothers as one. The tone is very professional and factual, trying not to be inflammatory or misinform but simply the truth with moments of windows into the despair and injustices his people have face for centuries. His statements that those in power never want to give up power willingly that it is up to the oppressed to show the inequalities that exist and demand to be treated with justice and dignity. The human quality of emotion backing in faith and history and morality all played a eccentric in determining that the time is now, that waiting for the right time is never. Kings control of rhetoric and emotion is that of a master deeply intellectual and deeply right making it quite easy to follow his premises. King persuasive at all times even when appearing to merely state the facts. He is a mast er at the craft of the persuasive essay by bringing the reader to the conclusions himself of what King wants the reader to see. King is scientific by sticking to the facts like a lawyer setting designer throughout the sands of time about similar injustices of a people. It was stimulate and powerful and left the reader feeling that they would be a fire idiot not to agree with King.The three texts of Orwells Shooting an Elephant and The Hanging along with Martin Luther King Jr.s Letter from Birmingham Jail are three powerful and perturbing pieces of literature documenting the injustice, the pain and the conflicting emotions of a time of civil ferment and change. Orwell appears to write essays that may be taking as fiction but really are autobiographical. King of course is not making any metaphors except to explain his cause in a simple direct and persuasive essay way. The fight is his own and he is an active participant in the fight. Orwell is more of an outsider, an audience, so meone who is in the drama but feels no control beyond observations but feels drawn to speak of injustice. So two authors are trying to write to right a wrong, King being far more clear in what he wants and how he sees the world tracing it back throughout time in the history of religion and the history of the United States and great evils and injustices overcome throughout time. He is by all odds a man of action and leadership fearless, clear headed and in collar control of his emotions and his logic in his judgement and in his quest for what is right. He is definitely a black and white argument and one can clearly see the great wrong being enacted in friendship in that time and place.Orwell is far more grey and overlapping viewpoints and agendas that in reality is what life is a series of grey that is not always so clear until looked back at. He also seems driven to write about the wrongs he witnesses in society but also writes in a more literary way of literature that sometim es is unclear whether based on historical fiction or true autobiographical writing of events. I believe they were based on experiences he lived through and the guilt he felt of these incidents, the part he played in an injustice, the guilt he felt of not being strong decorous to stand sure and say what he meant either by the sess mentality of the crowd and what he felt they wanted to avoid humiliation or laughter or just to have that moment of being powerful and important in the case of Shooting an Elephant. The Hanging was more of a true dispair of seeing an equally as docile small man hung as he was of the peacefully eating grass elephant he shot that had a long and labored death of suffering. In Shooting an Elephant he was the authority in charge and he could have changed the destiny of that helpless animal and felt great guilt at doing what he had done. In The Hanging there was nothing he could have done except question the way things were and why. He did not have training o n why the small peaceful man should be hung but he did have observations of the nature of life and the clinging to life and a life ripped out and cut short right in the prime of life and did any man have that right to do that to another man. every three essays are civil injustices of oppressed people of a people with a master who were objectified and treated second best or visionary and of a people not content to be served injustice any more. Orwell saw his part in their oppression and felt tremendous guilt and lack of control as a puppet on a string who does the will of the people and he even states how tyranny of the white man does nothing but lose freedom. The iron fist is so rigid it has no choice and the fear of a united ascension made those in power there to do the will of what the native people wanted to keep the peace. The guilt Orwell felt is clear and muddied at the same time a conflicting of memory and remembered feelings of the time and the hindsight that maturity ca n give that you realize you did not really know things as clearly as you thought you did and the tribulation that the dying elephant is the sadness of the dying British empire and the order and infrastructure was quite high with British control and now he can see perhaps they were not initially better off, but still he knew the people of Burma needed to be self determined, needed freedom. In The Hanging the issue is more of does anyone have the right to take the life of another, does anyone have the right to take the waters of life of a man and make him a puddle cut short his life in his prime and that argument could be applicable to many times and places. In this essay Orwell allows himself to question more clearly and to allow emotion which he transfers upon the dog in the essay as the dog is full of life and sees all people as people, prisoner and guard alike as men and perhaps what Orwell really wants is to have all men be equal and not be in place to judge another or pass the judgment of others for something he had no information about any wrong. over again a very grey argument but clearly more black and white than Shooting an Elephant