Alexandra Caffery Ms.

Wecks English III 27 February 2012 Sometimes What is Right, is Wrong

Caffery 1

What is peer pressure? Peer pressure is when peers pressure a friend or other peer into doing something against their beliefs. People give in to peer pressure for many reasons, to fit in, be accepted, be cool, and to not be looked down upon. A variety of teens and young adults join gangs, and are forced to do unbearable and unthinkable things. Many of them know it is wrong. They go through the beatings, the chance of being arrested, and even killing someone just to be in the gang. Why would someone go to this level just to be accepted? In Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell used repetition, imagery, pace, pathos, and word choice to appeal to the readers emotions to get the underlying message across. This story is about discovering if acceptance in society is worth the burden and guilt a person feels after going against their beliefs. As Eric Blair learned, it was not worth shooting the elephant for acceptance. He was burdened enough by this death to have the story written, to express the memories; the memories of the elephant heaving every breath as it died slowly, every thought that went through his brain, every movement he made. He repeatedly said he did not want to shoot the elephant. As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty I ought not to shoot him. (279) Orwell used many lines like this to express Blairs dislike of shooting the elephant, but the pressure from the

Caffery 2 natives made him shoot it. Orwell used the repetition of Blair resisting to shoot the elephant to make the reader understand that peer pressure resulted in Blair doing an act that he would soon regret. Orwell used graphic word choice and imagery to show the audience the underlying meaning in the story. The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. (283) His word choice explained the story in a manner that appealed to the readers emotions. Describing the torturing death of the elephant gave the reader an experience they could sympathize with and a real look into the feelings that Eric Blair had before and after shooting the elephant. The pace of the story was very fast in the beginning, but slowed down quite a bit before he shot the elephant. Orwell picked Blairs every thought and put them all on paper. Such as I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. (283) Describing every thought and motion Blair took; Orwell depicted his actions from start to finish. Although in reality the time did not slow between when Blair was told about the elephant and when he shot it, Orwell wrote the story as if it took Blair hours of debating in his head if he should shoot the elephant. This helped the audience see that Blair did not want to shoot the innocent creature, but did anyway because of the pressure the natives put on him. Blair lived with this guilt of shooting the elephant. If he had felt no guilt or sadness, this story would not have made such an impact on the reader. They would not have felt the guilt lift off the page and enter their brains through the

Caffery 3 word choice, imagery, pathos, repetition, and pace that Orwell expressed through Blairs distress about the event. His underlying message about acceptance being everything was clearly brought out through his techniques, but was not overt. And his message is true; acceptance is not always what it is made out to be.