Topic > George Orwell's Use of Stylistic Devices to Shoot an Elephant

In George Orwell's literary composition, "Shooting an Elephant" Orwell uses stylistic devices and rhetorical strategies to convey his attitude towards British imperialism, fear of humiliation and colonial political resentment. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay George Orwell was an English novelist, essayist, journalist and critic, born in Bengal, India in 1903. During his middle age instead of While attending university, Orwell decided to take a job in Lower Burma at the Indian Imperial Police. Subsequently, he decided to write about his experience in a literary composition, “Shooting an Elephant”. In this essay, Orwell, the narrator, recounts the time he worked as a colonial policeman in Lower Burma and was ridiculed by numerous local people. One of the main events of the story occurs when the narrator discovers that an elephant is demolishing a bazaar, arrives on the scene and prepares to kill the animal. The policeman realizes that the only way out of the situation is to exterminate the animal because otherwise he will be laughed at and called weak. Subsequently, Orwell shoots the elephant, which suffers an excruciating death. Later, the narrator realizes that he made a mistake because he was pressured by his peers and even mentions, "I often wondered if any of the others understood that I only did it to avoid looking stupid." An example where Orwell used the ability to use language effectively to disseminate his attitude towards British imperialism was when he said: “All this time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and I would give up first my job and I came out better." This sentence proves that Orwell did not support communism. As well as being a splendid writer and an inspiring figure, Orwell was also an idealist and a democratic socialist. He affirmed this fact habitually throughout his life. From Orwell's point of view, all political theories and ideologies were daunting and disconcerting. The reason he thought this way was because from his personal point of view if poor and wealthy people did not have a discrepancy, such a society would remain controversial. Another quote that shows that he (George Orwell) is antipathetic to communism is: “Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the English.” This quote defines, once again, that Orwell does not like the socialist system. In this literary composition, Orwell's fear of humiliation is one of the most important topics. An example that shows Orwell's use of language that creates a literary effect on his personal fear of humiliation was when he said, "Here I am, the white man with his gun, standing before the native mob unarmed - apparently the main actor of the piece; in reality I was just an absurd puppet pushed back and forth by the will of those yellow faces behind”. in fact, according to the phrase he felt under pressure and thought of himself as an object because the force of the Burmese expectation made him feel as if he was unable to handle the matter. In this story it is said that Orwell did not feel the need to slaughter the immense animal and the only cause that made him compute this action was the fear of humiliation. In other words, Orwell killed the mammoth to maintain a certain supremacy. This could be valuable as Orwell could live his.