Shooting Dilemmas

With the other two speeches I have looked at, they were from people from both sides. In this speech by George Orwell, we see a different side of the British Imperialism issue. Here is a young soldier who has to be there because it’s an order and not because he wants to. In this speech he decides to shoot an elephant but the reasons he chooses to do this aren't as clear or honorable.

In the first paragraphs, Orwell describes how he was treated by the natives. He stood out because he was an English man and was despised by the Burman’s. He creates n appeal to popularity with this idea. He describes how soldiers were ill treated, how he did not have a really good education, and all these reasons that would make the audience feel bad for him. He uses all of this so that later when he shoots the elephant, the audience agrees with his decision. Through this he realizes the power of the white man:  “I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” The audience could say they agreed with him since he makes it seem that if that course of action wasn't taken, he would suffer the consequences.

There is also hasty generalizations that push him to shoot. He says that all the faces watching him wanted him to shoot. How could he have seen all the faces? There were probably those who didn't want him to shoot the elephant at all. This hasty generalization makes the fact that he shot the elephant more appealing to the audience. Orwell plays the victim in the issue if you think about it.

The straw man tactic is the whole essay. To attempt to describe what it was like to feel pressure by the people in Burma. The story of the elephant is the authors way to have an argument against his opponent by using a topic he is familiar with and knows about. This makes his point look better than his opponents because he is the one posing the situation.