Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging by George Orwell - Literature review Example

Compare and Contrast "Shooting an Elephant" And "A Hanging". Abstract George Orwell played as a key character in the story but he was the main narrator and also there were six prison wardens as well as their senior; a superintendent. In the story; "A Hanging" the setting was mainly in a prison based jail while on the other hand the "Shooting an Elephant was in a Moulmein, in lower Burma where an Elephant went 'mute'.The use of colors in the two stories was mainly brown and yellow.There is also another similarity in side of character development and opening lines. In the both stories, there are two main outstanding animals involved; an elephant in the “Shooting an Elephant" and a dog in the “A Hanging". The elephant was angry, laborious, violent, destructive, mute and arrogant'(Orwell, and George 2008). On the other hand, the dog in the "A Hanging" story was defined by kindness, care and affectionate towards the young man on the gallows Introduction This essay compares and contrasts two short stories, which were written by George Orwell "Shooting and Elephant" and "A Hanging". Essentially, the setting of two stories was at a place Burma, which is a country in Asia. In the story, "A Hanging" the setting was mainly in a prison-based jail while on the other hand the "Shooting an Elephant was in a Moulmein, in lower Burma where an Elephant went 'mute'. The main Characters in the “A Hanging" story were mainly a Hindu popularly known because he was very small whit withno hair and vague liquid eyes, also he had a thick moustache which was quite humongous for his small body. In addition to that, George Orwell played as a key character in the story but he was the main narrator and also there were six prison wardens as well as their senior; a superintendent. Moreover, the supervisor of the jail was “a trained army physician with grayish kind of a toothbrush moustache and a gruff basedvoice”.Therefore, this essay looks into the difference and similarities between these two wonderful artworks of George Orwell. Thesis Statement Compare and Contrast "Shooting an Elephant" And "A Hanging". There are several similarities and difference cited from the two stories; Shooting an Elephant" And "A Hanging" by George Orwell. Similarities “...a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes due to the yellow complexion.”First, thesame author who is George Orwell wrote the two books, popularly known as Eric. A. Blair. He is an experienced essayist who has written a lot on ant-seminitism in England. Essentially, he was a police officer in Burma at the time of writing the essay “Shooting an elephant”. Theuse of colors in the two stories wasmainly brown and yellow. However, there are some color similarities, which the writer used to depict certain characters and their behaviors. Therefore, there was a similarity in the two stories in that yellow color was used in both of them. However, they meant different thing as it should be revealed in the difference part of the essay. In addition to that, the brown color was also used in the two books however; it meant different things in each of the story. Moreover, there was an opening line in each of the book and it meant different things in each of them, as it shall be discussed in the contrast section for example.There is also another similarity in side of character development; whereOrwell creates some internal based conflict through his behavior to bring out the point. The characters are held between their morals values and the push and pull from the society. In the “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell was serving as a sub divisional police officer but also an English man, who was a great oppose to the oppressive based British colonialist.. However, he also hated the ridicule and diminishment he is slapped with by the natives of Burma (Orwell, and George 2008).Therefore; we can conclude strongly that there was color similarity in the two texts though inferred different meanings. “As a result, he realizes that he must shoot the elephant eventually.”The first setting of his inner-basedagony is depicted as a dilemma when he is juxtaposed between his ego- feelings against killing an elephant and being laughed at by a certain crowd of hostile based Englishmen. He quite knows it that killing an elephant is a crime, but cannot find the strong courage to stand up against his fear of being scorned and laughed. Suddenly, a voice case which said to him, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool. The individuals, who were him to do so, were the futile white mendominating the East.He was forced to shoot it, with the will of the mammoth crowd controlling him just like a small puppet and for the fear of not termed foolish.We can conclude on this paragraph without fear that inner-based agony for the elephant can be compared to the anger he felt in hanging the innocent young man. “It is a great thing to die in your own bed, though it is better still to die in your boots “Similarly Orwell face the same challenging situation in “A Hanging” based story, where he has no option but to agree, despite knowing it well that what he is doing was against the rule of law. Orwell found himself in an unconditional situation, when aharmlesshealthy but good-lookingYoungman wasput on the gallows by the British masters. He knows it hurts, and disgusting but he cannot object and bring him to stand up for the young man, and challenge the hanging. Orwell ended by explaining how killing a weak, innocent young man will eventually terminate life of the man in addition to the great potential based future the young lad could have enjoyed. Just like in the “Shooting of Elephant, he end up conforming to the futile British and hang the young man. He is not obliged to make a personal based decision on the spot, like in the previous based essay on hanging the elephant, because it is his duty as an officer. By using the two stories about the elephant and also the hanging of the prisoner, Orwell reveals how he eventually end up to torn apart between being eitherloyal the disrespectfulBritish masters and or abiding by his own conscience basedguided morals but he consoled himself by memorizing.(Orwell, and George 2008). Contrast (Differences) …Sneering Yellow Faces…” George Orwell used same colors in the two stories “Shooting an elephant” and “A hanging” to reflect two different issues.First, the yellowcolor was used to distinguish the color of those various people and characters in "Shooting an Elephant “story while on the other hand in the story "A Hanging" it was used to reflect an image of the environment, weather and setting of the prison jail. Secondly, the Brown color was also used in "A Hanging" to identify the men characters for instance the silent brown men were quite squatting while the same color in the other shooting an elephant story was mainly used to reveal a setting based feeling.Therefore the "sneering yellow faces" are the faces of the Burmese based people complexion. . The opening statement included “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.”This difference noted was the meaning of the use of the opening line in each of the two stories. In the story "Shooting an Elephant”, the opening line revealed how a large number of people who hate him yet it was his most important day in life. On the other hand, in the story “A Hanging”, the opening line talks about sodden morning full of rains in Burma. I think that the opening line for the story "Shooting an Elephant" was very effective because it signal something salient going to take placeThis means that readers will be interested in reading the story to know more about the characters life verdict after being hated by the crowd (Orwell, and George 2008).Therefore, we can arguably manifest that opening lines had great differences in each of the two texts. “…The dog was kind, loving and concerned”….. In addition to that, the two stories involve animals. However,they differ in that the "Shooting and Elephant" uses an elephant while on the other hand the "A Hanging" relies on a dog. Amazingly, the two animals are portrayed to have different characters for instance the elephant has been characterized of anger, destruction and violence as much as being mute. The dog was found to be respectful, kind, affectionate, caring and quite pity for the man being hanged. These show different aspects of life where the elephant respect those of us in the society unkind of others and ready to kill them so that we can rob off their resources (Orwell, and George 2008). The dog on the other hand show those in our society good in taking care of the other, feeling them and ready to help in saving their endangered life situations. This can be substantiated by the word. However, in summary, the superintendent was acting like an elephant in the other story because he did not have mercy for the life of the hanged man just like Orwell and the dog. On the other hand, the Orwell in the “Shooting an Elephant” story is defined as “an arrogant person who decides to please the crown and the futile white men by opening fire to the elephant”. This creates a difference in understanding the real Orwell we know and the young Orwell depicted in the stories. In the A hanging Story, we see a mature Orwell quite apologetic and king to the hanged man. He takes a mindful step on whether to hang the man or not. However, he eventually get convinced that I any line of duty and as an officer, he should not defy an order from the superintendent. The elephant get annoyed and end up killing him. Therefore, in summary for, we observe that is essential for the individuals to be mature and kind to the others. Conclusion A line in "Shooting and Elephant" reveals how an individual has a value but in a negative way within a society, by putting money first in his mind. In the both stories, there are two main outstanding animals involved; an elephant in the “Shooting an Elephant" and a dog in the “A Hanging". The elephant was angry, laborious, violent, destructive, mute and arrogant'(Orwell, and George 2008). On the other hand, the dog in the "A Hanging" story was defined by kindness, care and affectionate towards the young man on the gallows. This reflects that the animals as having different life based aspects. First, the elephant had no feelings towards the man he is killing like Orwell while the dog has some feeling unlike the popular superintendent ready to hang the mankind. In conclusion to thistwo essays, Orwell reveals two different based scenarios where murder and no value for so called 'inferior groups'of peoplebefore the hand of Orwell and superintendent takes place. It can be revealed that Orwell tries to show people that humans being and animals are not so differentbut sharequite similarities. Appendices Difference “A hanging” “Shooting an Elephant Similarities of “A hanging” “Shooting an Elephant” Conclusion Works Cited Contrast “Between A hanging” & “Shooting Elephant” Orwell, George, and George Packer.Facing Unpleasant Facts: Narrative Essays. Orlando: Harcourt, 2008. Print. Read More