~~` SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT ~~~

 ~~SYMBOLS IN THE ESSAY~~

SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT BY GEORGE ORWELL

 Some of the obvious symbols which are present in this essay by Orwell are:

1. The elephant itself: It is compared to, "a huge and costly piece of machinery." It is symbolic of how the economy of a poor Burmese village functioned under colonial British rule:

It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided.

2. Orwell himself: Throughout the essay Orwell is a living symbol of all that was bad of the colonial British rule, and he himself is aware of it:

The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.

3.  The rifle: The rifle is symbolic of the brute force which was at the disposal of the colonial British rulers. In this village in Burma only the British owned and possessed the guns. It was this which enabled them to appear as demi-gods to the natives and rule over them. Orwell symbolically narrates how cruelly he used it to kill a helpless animal not to protect the villagers from harm but only to emphasize his superior status over them:

when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle. A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing – no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.

~~~ THE ESSAY ~~~

~~ SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT BY GEORGE ORWELL ~~~

      The narrator’s mental division points to conscience as one of the underlying themes of “Shooting an Elephant.” The narrator must do his duty as a colonial policeman. He despises the native Burmese for loathing and tormenting him as their foreign oppressor; yet he also perfectly well understands their loathing and tormenting; he even takes their side privately. His official position, rather than his moral disposition, compels the narrator to act in the way that he does, so as to uphold his office precisely by keeping the native Burmese in their subordinate and dependent place. As a colonial official, the narrator must not let himself become a spectacle before the native crowds. Not shooting the elephant would make him seem like a coward, so he shoots the elephant. The narrator’s moral conscience appears in the moment when the corpse of the Burmese crushed by the elephant comes to his attention; the narrator says that the man lay sprawled in a “crucified” posture, invoking all of the poignant and rich symbolism that the term “crucified” offers. The elephant, too, especially in its pain-wracked death, evokes in the narrator feelings of terrible pity, not soothed by his knowledge that he acted within the law. Law, indeed, opposes conscience in “Shooting an Elephant.” The brute fact of Empire, thoroughly institutionalized, is irreconcilable with the individual’s moral 

~~~~ I HAVE A DREAM~~~~

SPEECH BY MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR..........

     

I have a dream by Martin Luther King Jr. is one of the most memorable speeches of all time. It is worthy of lengthy study as we can all learn speechwriting skills from King’s historic masterpiece.

I have a dream comes up a lot and he wants to get the point through peoples mind and so he uses a lot of sentences because he doesn’t want to live like this or have his family and other families all across the world live the way he had to. what he is saying is I don’t want to put up with this anymore, and we people do not want to be judged by our colour, hair, or the way we look but by the way our personality is.

Martin Luther king Jr. uses repetition to get his point across to stop the segregation between white and African Americans. One way he uses repetition is when he says “let freedom ring” four times in a row to give African Americans all the rights that a white man has. the most common use of repetition is when he says “i have a dream” to show what he thinks is right, and what should change which can grab peoples attention

I found this speech very wonderful and effective because of its words and expressions which were very persuasive also the manner which was very amazing because it stems from heart.

~~~~~ DIARIES ~~~~~

~~~ DEAR DIARY~~~~~

Diaries are personal in nature. They are usually written for the private reading of their writers. However, diaries do become public reading materials, often after the death of the writers. Like autobiographies, diaries also provide much insight about the writers.

I found out that by writing a diary it will improve one person writing ability. A psychological fact of life is that we fear of rejection or disapproval from others and we do better when we are not controlled by that fear.

We also will enjoy reading what we have written even months and years later we will find ourselves coming back in our filled diaries. There is almost nothing so interesting than reading what we had written in our diaries.

Diaries also will keep us encouraged and accountable as we work to meet goals. Log the progress, pains and pleasure of our pursuits. We will be energized by what we have already conquered and will be able to look forward with new determination to succeed.

At the very last, our diaries can jog our memories if we forget what happened on a certain day or aren't certain of the details of an important conversation or event.


so, how can you leave your diary dusty now ? Push away the vines covering the gate .... go write.......

..... LETTERS PART 2.....

..... LOVE MAKES THE TIME PASS, TIME MAKES  THE LOVE PASS........

After reading some of Keats's letters to Fanny ,  I realize that being deeply love by someone give you strength while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Love is of all passions the strongest for it attacks simultaneously the head, the heart and the senses.......

Marriage may be made in heaven but the maintenance must be done on earth. Love is like a war, easy to begin but very hard to stop. Love is not sweet talks and flowers, but love is forgiving and compromising.  Love your partner just the way they are , love them without fear, trust them without wondering, want them without demand .... a love like that will be eternal.....

Our live are like a candle in the wind ... like a hot bath, it feels good while you are in it, but the longer you stay in, the more wrinkled you will get. God..... if I can have what I want, please let me want what i have because i realize that life is too short and we only live once, but if we work it right.. once is enough. So let us live for today and tomorrow .... live for now and what's here ... stop living for what may be or what may never come..... live for the day already here because life is too short........ too short.......

.....JOHN KEATS's LOVE LETTER......

KEATS'S LETTERS TO FANNY BRAWNE.......

Letter writing was an art form at one time, but today emails are probably popular and common. letters reveal much about the write.

Trolling the internet for Keats- related info the other day, I came across this review of M. Buxton Forman's collection of Keats's letters to Fanny Browne, printed in 1878. It is really interesting to read.

Though John Keats died when he was just 25 years old, he left behind some of the most exquisite and moving poetry ever written. He also left an incredibly of love letters , inspired by his great love for Fanny Brawne. Although they knew each other for just a few short years and spent a great deal of that time due to Keats' worsening illness, which forced him to live abroad, Keats wrote again and again about Fanny. His very last poem is called simply " To Fanny " and he wrote love letters to her constantly. She , in return would  wear the ring he had given her until her death.

In his letter to Fanny Brawne, John Keats is exhorting her to understand how great his passion is for her, to accept his opinion of her loveliness and to realize what lengths he would go to prove his love for her. Keats is at the courtship stage of his relationship with Fanny and is trying to impress and flatter her with the strengths of his feeling. Keats achieves his purpose through his serious and melodramatic tone, his romantic, exaggerated style and his emotive use of language.

.........POEMS BY LANGSTON HUGHES..........

WE SHOULD RESPECT OUR PARENTS.........

After I read Langston Hughes' poems in the EDU 3234 Reading And Project Work For Teaching Literature In ESL contexts module ( pg 47 & 48 ) ,  I found out that his dad was a right white man but his mother was black. So he is not really sure whether hes white or black. He just a cross of the two.

The theme of this poem is despair and self-doubt. He regrets the emotions he had towards his parents and that has led him to doubt himself. In his self doubt he has begun to consider his racial identity. He is spairing for lack one and doubting his ability to choose a path in the world.

I think I can use this poem in my classroom. This poem will teach my pupils to respect and love their parents no matter how they look like. To me it is very important to honor our parents. If not because of them we will not be able to see the world.

Think about our father who are working hard so that we have something to eat, they provide us with shelter and clothing. They strive hard to give us good education. There are many parents who are sacrificing a lot just for the good of their children. This is enough for us to realize that we must respect our parents in any way.