In class, we discussed our reading for homework: "Why I Shot an Elephant" by George Orwell. We talked about why exactly our feeling were from the text.
The (true) story, in a nut shell, describes how a man working for the British police in Burma is "forced"/pressured into killing an elephant that was loose in the village.
I quickly related it to last years reading of "The Lottery" and the idea behind mob mentality. There is this idea of peer pressure because the minute the towns people see him with a gun, they want to see if he will commit to murdering the defenseless animal. He is influenced by the group surrounding him and acts accordingly.
There are also points in which the author seems detached from the piece. He is looking from an above perspective. The author also seems to have a good moral conscious and could be using this text as a way to justify his actions.
A very interesting point was made in the class: In the beginning, the elephant was viewed as the "evil" or "bad" thing while the villagers were the "innocent" ones. By the end of the story, the roles are reversed since the elephant has calmed down while the villagers are now riled up, hoping to see the elephant shot. This shows a sense of irony in the end.
The most important thing we discussed in class was what persona the author was trying to portray. The author makes this "I" a very bigoted, weak character that has a parochial view on life that is done for a specific reason.The author himself is a very political writer: He wrote both "Animal Farm" and "1984". Why did he make such a dislike-able character? Why did he chose to show such a bad side of himself? We were not able to go into much dept in class--In fact, class was over. But it will be continued in tomorrows class.
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ReplyDeleteYou forgot to name the next Scribe. Who is it?
ReplyDeleteI like the text to text connection with "The Lottery"
ReplyDeleteI love they way you used text to text connections from other books
ReplyDeleteGreat connections to last years text! The synthesis was well written and easy to read.
ReplyDelete"I quickly related it to last years reading of "The Lottery" and the idea behind mob mentality." I likes how you related the two texts, which share similar situation. Overall good job and great image!
ReplyDeleteGood descriptions without being too wordy or rambling on! :) Very helpful if I was out sick!
ReplyDeleteIt is my educated opinion that due to the fact that elephants are living, breathing organisms, killing one for no good reason is an evil, despicable thing to do. Human nature tends to be very narrow, and when people see creepy things like elephants, tend to have mixed emotions.
ReplyDeleteHey, Bruna! I think it's awesome that you mentioned that he also wrote Animal Farm, that provides a great insight into how he works as a person and why his writing did, in fact, have a point and he wasn't just being a bigot for the sake of being a bigot. Awesome job!
ReplyDeleteI agree with the observation that the author was detached from the piece, I was thinking that as well while reading. At some points it almost seems like he's talking about a different person. On the other hand, though, in the middle, when he has to shoot the elephant, he gets very emotionally invested and the tone changes a little bit from casual observer to an emotional narrator.
ReplyDeleteI like your connection to the mob mentality from the story last year. I had forgotten about it and I agree that the situations are very similar. This notion can also be connected to today, so we can relate to it and understand it.
ReplyDeleteBruna, that was very insightful. I don't think I would have ever made a text to text connection with "The Lottery".
ReplyDeleteBruna, I love your point about mob mentality. That was an essential part to the story. I liked how you made a text to text connection to The Lottery from last year's curriculum. I agree with toast human nature does allow us to want to kill or harm things we have never seen or things that we aren't used too.
ReplyDeleteThis scribe post was very insightful and really would update me if I had been out sick or missed this class.
I thought the comment about "The Lottery" was very interesting. I did not think of that while reading, but when you mention it, it make a lot of sense.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the fact that the author was detatched from the piece. I think he chose to do this because he does not want to be associated with, and because he was trying to showcase a worse part of society. This may be something to think about while answering the questions "Why did he make such a dislike-able character?" and "Why did he chose to show such a bad side of himself?".
ReplyDeleteGreat job!