I became interested in George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant just by reading the title of the essay. Having read 1984 and Animal Farm, I knew that it had to be about something political, but exactly what, I was unsure of. In order to satisfy my inquisitiveness, I decided that I should simply read the essay. Simply put, I was amazed.
The thing that amazed me most about Orwell's essay, was how utterly vivid it was. Not only could I picture everything that happened, I could practically hear everything that was going on. When he wrote, "When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick . . . but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd," I was able to see the crowds' reaction to the elephant being shot. I could almost hear the sudden change come over the crowd, from holding their breaths in anticipation, to sudden excitement as the bullet strikes home, mortally wounding the colossal beast.
Something that struck me as equally amazing was the tone of the story. Before shooting the elephant, there was a feeling of a building frenzy, and as soon as he shot the elephant, I noticed a sudden somberness to the rest of the story. I noticed a sort of sadness as he came to the close of his anecdote. He knew that he shouldn't have killed the elephant, so he hides behind killing it with the excuse that it had to be killed after killing a coolie.
Beginning this essay thinking that it was simply going to be bookish, I came out surprised. I guess I should have expected it since I had read two of Orwell's books, but I made the mistake of underestimating his writing abilities. Orwell's skills as a writer are, to me, nonpareil - unequaled. He uses intense amounts of imagery, but while doing so, is still able to get his message across to readers.
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5 comments:
Your writing is effective and causes me to want to read this short story. The quoted text accompanies your analysis perfectly and you seem to never lose track of your own perspective. A well crafted post, Dan.
Your description of how vivid the story was as well as your notice in the change of tones makes this essay sound very alluring. Also nice word choice it added to your post.
at first I wasnt going to read your analysis because it was on shooting an elephant, but I decided to anyway. Even though my personal opinions differ from the title of the essay, I thought that how vivid your own essay was is extraordinary. I didnt read this essay, but I loved that you added how he felt terrible after he killed the elephant. This made me feel more comfortable with reading the actual essay.
Great analysis. You really seemed to understand how the author was trying to portray the meaning of the essay, and also appeared to take notice of his "vivid" writing strategy.
I agree with chasina on the fact that your word choice really added to your essay. You wrote this essay so well that I decided to read this selection myself. Good job.
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