Stylistic analysis of Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell - Essay Example

Stylistic analysis of Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell is a narrated story that is in the form of an essay. Orwell uses the essay to create awareness to his readers about the self-destruction that is caused by the imperialist system of government. This essay emerges as marvellous piece of work due to a perfect combination of plot, theme and tone. In addition the symbolism, details and scenario presented by the narrator creates profound impact on reader. The narrator has used irony and conflict as stylistic elements in order to communicate the main theme and purpose of the essay, which is to present evils and senselessness of imperialism. Combining the use of language and information with these two stylistic elements, fantastically, Orwell has succeed in his attempted to create a feeling of disappointment for the imperial system. The essay seems so obviously ironic, although the author has tried his best to supress ironic style by supporting it with his tone. Anyone can trace the calm and peace in narrator’s status, when he is describing the events which are capable of making reader upset, but even after it, the use of harmonic tone cannot hide the ironic nature of the essay. When the narrator states that the hate of native people for him is because of him being a part of British Indian Imperial Police. The narrator’s style of describing the hate of local people towards him is clearly ironic. The essay by George Orwell is a clear evidence for being very ironic as the author has used situationally ironic style to emphasize on his ideas. Irony has been used in the story to show how imperialism is a double edged sword that normally destroys both the conquered people, and the conqueror by himself. Ironically, the natives in this system of government control the executioner instead of being the other way round- the victims of imperialism ironically controlled Orwell. The killing of the elephant that takes place in the text makes him feel important simply because he cared how the native people viewed him. For example, the author says, "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (Orwell 7). The narrator wanted to appear as a leader before the natives and not a fool. The essay also displays various kinds of conflict. The conflict between man and society is presented in the essay where Europeans in Burma were not accepted. The narrator points how much the struggle against the Burmese society highly affected him. Even though he served the British nation as a police officer where he was enforcing imperialist ideas, he was against the oppressors of the Burmese, the British. He says “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (Orwell 3). Conflict is also evident where he had to shoot the elephant just because he could not fail the crowd that was following him. The elephant was peaceful, the killing of coolie may have been an accident simply, and narrator did not wish to hurt it, but had to do it just to please the crowd. Orwell knew very well that he was giving in to the wishes of the native people, but had to kill the elephant in order to feel appreciated by the Burmese after overlooking the agony and pain that he would inflict on the elephant. The narrator says that he was compelled to shoot the animal because “[the Burmans] did not like me, but with the magical riffle in my hands, I was momentarily worth of watching” (Orwell 6). He further says that “It is the condition of the imperialist rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the ‘natives’ ” (Orwell 7). He had to do what the natives expected of him even if it was against his morality and conscience. Conflict can be regarded as an important and detectable style of author because of its very frequent appearance in the whole essay. An example that can be related to conflict style applied by author is evident in his reasoning to be happy, although having a well thought-of designation, on the death of coolie that ultimately provided him the chance to become important and famous in local people. This example also indicates the presence of ironic style in a manner that can be easily identified. Working as a police officer implies that he is able to earn reputation by satisfying his duty and helping public, but instead of doing so, the author narration about his feeling of joy for the death of a coolie presents contradictory situation and therefore, highlights the conflict of state. Another example for the implying conflict style during narration by author is quite obvious when it comes to define the status of the narrator. The narrator is capable of bring change in the prevailing thought of public regarding the evils of imperialism, still he is putting all his efforts in explaining that how much responsible imperialism is, to induce the feeling of hate for him in local people. I think the reason behind including irony and conflict style in this essay of Orwell is to impose his feelings and thoughts on the reader, regarding the imperialism, the culprit, for the destruction of his moral values and to withstand his pride. The theme of this essay can be defined as an attempt to offend imperialism and its evils by relating the narrator’s state of being a member of British Indian Imperial Police in Burma. By including the right details for plot and the behaviour of the public with him, the author has precisely expressed the misfortune of a man living life on a land where the local people do not acknowledge him and his duty due to their negative feelings for imperialism. The theme also comprises of the narrator’s understanding that he has lost his freedom of judgement and choice in the process of getting acknowledgement and respect from the natives of Burma. The main purpose of Orwell’s describing the shooting of an element is to describe the effort he made, to inspire the local people and drag their attention to the fact he is willing to do any task according to their demand, without caring if he has been left with an unsatisfied conscience. The author narrates that he felt himself so bound to accept the demand, for shooting the elephant, made by the crowd of native following him, and he did so even at the cost of his own reluctance. The author has used his expertise of narrating atmosphere, events and tone in a very promising approach. He has greatly satisfied the reader that whatever he did, even though he himself considers guilty for it, was not his fault, but of the established impacts of imperialism. There are many parts in the essay where the author has utilized the ironic style to cover up his situation. Author has also incorporated the conflict of argues to justify a situation where a reader can demand the narrator to fulfil his duty honestly and not to pursue the feeling of making natives happy. As the narrator indicates that deep inside, against the demand of crowd, he himself was not comfortable with the idea of shooting elephant, but he did it. The author has very efficiently saved himself from the charge of being culprit by putting all blame to the negative consequences of imperialism in his text. Thus, Orwell has impressively exploited the irony and conflict as elements of style to communicate the overall meaning of the text which is actually meant to attack on imperialism and high point its consecutive effects on both the natives and the government. The imperialist style of governance humiliated its people and reduced them to inferior status in their country. This is why the narrator goes against his conscience in order to save his fellow imperialists from humiliation, hence bringing out the main theme of the text. Therefore, through the use of irony and conflict, Orwell has been able to convey his theme in a powerful manner. Read More