In 1936, influential 20th Century political author George Orwell composed the famous essay “Shooting an Elephant.” In his essay, Orwell describes his feelings of how control and domination have two faces. Through his story about having to shoot an elephant, he express how the people who dominate others are in a way dominated by the same people as well. He refers to the dominators as being puppets pushed to and fro destroying their own freedom. In the story Orwell was a police officer for the British Empire in Burma. He bitterly hated his job and how the British treated and dominated the native people. He expressed how closely he was able to see how not only he but the other Englishmen felt that way but he felt there was nothing to be done but continue in the role they were given. “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it,” is what Orwell said to express his and the other Englishmen’s feelings. On a given day Orwell went to investigate an incident he received a phone call about. He had to take control of an elephant that had gone “must,” a state of violent, destructive frenzy that occurs in the rutting season of male elephants. In the pursuit of finding and taking control of the elephant he came to realize how much of an impact the natives had in his decision to shoot the elephant. Though personally he did not want to or feel it was necessary to shoot the elephant, he felt pushed by the natives to play the role of a sahib, “to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things.” So Orwell shot the elephant, but the elephant did not die instantly. In fact, he suffered and struggled to die for a half hour. Orwell even tried shooting it several more times to speed up the process. After it was all done there were many different opinions about the shooting and if it was right. Most of his colleagues criticized him for destroying an expensive working elephant, but Orwell only did it so he would not look like a fool. Deciding to shoot the elephant saved him from the humiliation of not playing the role of the dominator and living up to his duties, but by shooting it Orwell also ended up compromising a bit of his own freedom and he didn’t do what he felt was right and just (Orwell).

George Orwell was born on June 25, 1903, in a British colony in what is now India. When he was just one year old he, his mother and his older sister traveled to England and there is where he grew up. Orwell started school when he was five and was thought to be a bright student. He was given a scholarship to Cyprian’s School and did well enough there to earn a scholarship to Wellington College and Eton. He only was at Wellington a year before he transferred to Eton. Though he was happy there and made many life-long friends, Orwell described himself as a poor student and many teachers did not like him. He did not get a diploma from Eton but instead became a police officer for the British Empire. Though he always felt it throughout his life because of the experiences of his father, Orwell during that time became sure of how much he hated domination and control of people over other people. During his time as a police officer for the British Empire Orwell experienced personally the effects of it. He experienced how no one wins and no one benefits from it. It became clear to him that it was getting seriously bad for no reason other than no one would take action. He also came to the conclusion that if people continued on that path it would eventually destroy all (Chronological).

That time in George Orwell’s life changed him forever. His views on people, government, domination, and what needed to be said about it all brought the incredible work Orwell has influenced people all over the world with. An important piece of his work that greatly explains his views was “Politics and the English Language.” Though it was a short piece of writing, Orwell was able to explain his feelings on how society uses language to mask some of the vicious truths and make things that are done seem ethical just by using certain chioice words. He also explains how the English language has been and continues to be mostly empty words with no real meaning, something to entertain a real thought and how it is transforming our words into thoughtless ideas. All this allows others to control peoples thoughts, ideas, actions, and in part their entire being. But the crazy things about it all is that none of it is forced. All that needs to be done is to take action and all can be reversed, but not many people do that. People continue to allow themselves to be controlled and dominated because they are lazy and don’t want to make the effort for change (Orwell “Politics and the English Language”).

Another piece of writing from George Orwell that amazingly describes his views is a very insightful book he wrote called “1984.” His main character identifies many people in today’s society that have many very different views and thoughts about the “helpfulness” of the government but because of many battles lost have given up the fight and just conformed to everything. His character, Winston Smith, started off following the same rules and beliefs as everyone else because that was what he was told to do and how it was supposed to be. The government controlled every aspect of everyone’s life. There was a very strict way of doing things and everyone had very strict rules and schedules to go by. Though it was against the rules, Winston eventually fell in love with a woman named Julia and they planned to fight for their love and fight against the controlling government. They were eventually caught and tortured until they were broken and no longer felt their own feelings about the government, but the feelings the government wanted them to feel. Orwell wanted people to see how impactful not thinking for yourself and expressing your own thoughts and opinions can be. What kind of world we would live in if everyone just conformed to being told what to do and how to live and how necessary it is for us to come together and fight for and protect that privilege we have (Orwell “1984”).

Orwell had many other impactful writing pieces that expressed how necessary it was for us all to open our eyes and really see and pay attention to the world around us. In many ways he explained to us on how simple it would be to destroy the privilege of having freedom and how in some ways we are on that path to doing so already. But in his writing he also in many ways advises people how to prevent it from happening and if it should happen how to reverse it. In a short piece called “Final Warning” he said, “Don’t let it happen. It depends on you.” It is everyone’s responsibility to not allow power and domination to rule our lives. When we live up to that responsibility is when we will see the joys of complete freedom.

 

Works Cited

AudioBookHottest. “1984 Part 1 By George Orwell Audio Book.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 21 January 2014. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oW2H5XVE7EA>.

ColinMichaelSmith. “Orwell on the English Language, Part 1 of 5.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 August 2010. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5TVxetzIS8>.

ColinMichaelSmith. “Orwell on the English Language, Part 2 of 5.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 August 2010. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CmG3deuBbo>.

ColinMichaelSmith. “Orwell on the English Language, Part 4 of 5.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 August 2010. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjEule7UKwE>

ColinMichaelSmith. “Orwell on the English Language, Part 5 of 5.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 22 August 2010. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey5zVaz3m_o>.

TheHitchensArchive. “Christopher Hitchens - [~2005] - Why Orwell Matters.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 24 April 2013. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rY5Ste5xRAA>.

Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." George Orwell 1903-1950. K-1 Internet Publishing. Web. 21 April 2015. <http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/site/about.html>.

VideoSparkNotes. "Video SparkNotes: Orwell's 1984 Summary.” Online Video Clip. YouTube. YouTube, 21 October 2009. Web 30 April 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9JIKngJnCU>.