George Orwell Essay Free Essays

In the story â€Å"On the Rainy River† a 20-year old named Tim O’Brien is about to be given the freedom to go anywhere in life until he receives a draft notice requiring him to join the army in the Vietnam War. Tim O’Brien is tested both physically and mentally. We will write a custom essay sample on George Orwell Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now He has the option to flee to Canada or go to the war. Each option would result in abandoning family, friends, and fond memories. In his essay â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† reminisces about a bad decision he made earlier in life, just like Tim. Reflecting on his experience, Orwell has also identified the reasons why he did it: â€Å"I could get nothing into perspective. I was young and ill-educated and I had to think out my problems in utter silence,† Tim O’Brien also dealt with his problems alone, â€Å" I felt isolated; I spent a lot of time alone. † Both Tim and George are struggling to deal with their problems and it’s eating away at them. In â€Å"On the Rainy River,† having a good education doesn’t have much on an impact on Tim’s life, because if your nation calls on you to defend your country, you’re going to have to make a difficult decision on whether you’re going to flee or going to war. Being educated makes Tim more open-minded, and prevents him from indulging in the nationalism that was sweeping the nation during that time. Although Tim may have good reasons we shouldn’t be in the war, the nation was depending on men like him. In â€Å"Shooting an Elephant,† George Orwell says â€Å" †¦I could get nothing into perspective. I was young and ill-educated and I had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East. † George Orwell is trying to say that when you’re young and inexperienced you’re bound to make a lot of mistakes. When you’re young your family, peers, and own country have influenced your opinions. Many individuals are afraid and unwilling to deviate from the norm. George is an anti-imperialist at heart, but puts on an officer uniform and represents imperialism because that is how the European nation is viewed to the rest of the world. Based off of Orwell’s ideas, you should think individually so you won’t regretnthings later on in life as George and Tim do. Your conscious would show you wrong from right. George Orwell’s ideas can also be applied to â€Å"On the Rainy River†. Although Tim is educated on the war in Vietnam, he does have to deal with his problems in utter silence because he’s afraid that the people he can talk to will tell him to go to the war and he doesn’t want to be called a coward, which takes a toll on his body. â€Å"How at work one morning†¦I felt something break open in my chest†¦it was a physique rupture.† So not only is Tim losing sleep and becoming paranoid, but now the stress is affecting Tim’s physical health as well. If Tim had talked to Elroy Berdahl he would have been much better off. The guilt and stress has been eating away at Tim all summer, and will continue to get at him until he can speak to someone about what he’s going through. If Tim had vented to Elroy, his physical and mental health might have returned to normal, which would have helped him to make his decision. George faces being ill educated along with dealing with his problems. George is an outcast in the native village. He is supposed to be striking fear into these people, however he is against the brutality and injustice that imperialism instills on its subjects. If only George had had the courage to tell the natives who he really was, he might have had an easier time being accepted by them. If George had been better educated, he might have known how to think straight when surrounded by two thousand people; he might have also known where to shoot the elephant so it wouldn’t have to suffer the way it did. To conclude, both Tim and George tried to run away from the inevitable. You can’t escape who you are, and that is what Tim and George tried to do. Tim was an American citizen who was caught up in the draft for the Vietnam War, and George was a citizen of an imperial nation. Tim couldn’t face leaving his friends and family behind so he ended up damaging himself both physically and mentally without even trying to talk this out with his family and friends. While George an anti-imperialist at hear must enforce it upon this Asian country. Both decisions were forced by others whether it is Tim deciding to go to the war due to the devastating fact that if he were to go to Canada, he would never see his family again and if George didn’t shoot that elephant, the tribal people would be more disrespectful than ever. George Orwell wants us to be individuals and think for ourselves. We shouldn’t be influenced by others to make decisions we wouldn’t normally do. How to cite George Orwell Essay, Essays George Orwell Essay Free Essays George Orwell’s â€Å"How the Poor Die†, is an anecdote that reflects his stay in a hospital in Paris, back in 1929. In deep detail, Orwell described the setting, people, and what he felt towards the negative atmosphere to convince readers about the horrifying Hopital X. In this essay, Orwell’s use of literary and historical reference, language use and imagery, and comparison will be discussed in terms of whether or not this essay is effective for modern readers. We will write a custom essay sample on George Orwell Essay or any similar topic only for you Order Now In his anecdote, Orwell used a lot of literary and historical references that are useful in explaining the current period that he was in. â€Å"How the Poor Die† is set in Paris, back in February 1929. At that point, Orwell wrote that hospitals already have a negative image even before he wrote his anecdote. In paragraph 5, Orwell referred to a variety of literatures from the 19th Century. Tennyson’s poem, The Children’s Hospital and the conversation between Bob Sawyer and Benjamin Allen remains unfamiliar for modern readers. Orwell also mentioned a few other characters from the 19th Century that also has the same impression of hospitals. This includes George III who shrieks when surgeons approach him, and â€Å"the names given to doctors in nineteenth-century English fiction, Slasher, Carver, Sawyer, Fillgrave and so on† (paragraph 5 line 13). A brief description of literatures from the 19th century like those mentioned before allows modern readers to understand the relation of the negativity of hospitals and these characters. Therefore, since Orwell gathered his historical references in one paragraph, modern readers still have the ability to determine that in this paragraph, Orwell is informing readers that a lot of people have always had a negative image of hospitals, even before his stay at Hopital X. To give readers a view about the horrific Hopital X, Orwell used a variation of imagery to describe mostly negative perspectives about his experience. Orwell first described the setting. One of them was the ward that he stayed in. He described it as â€Å"a long, rather low, ill-lit room; full of murmuring voices and with three rows of beds surprisingly close together. There was a foul smell, faecal and yet sweetish† (paragraph 2 line 8). In there, not only did he give visual images, Orwell also described the sounds and also the atmosphere (smell) that he was in. Orwell’s detailed imagery isn’t limited to the setting only. He also explained to readers â€Å"’cupping’, a treatment which you can read about in old medical text-books but which till then I had vaguely thought of s one of those things they do to horses. â€Å" (Paragraph 2 lines 14-16). Elaborating the meaning of this treatment is effective for modern readers because even then, he also mentioned that readers should ‘read about (cupping) in old medical text-books’. With that explanation, modern or non-modern readers get to have the idea of the unfamiliar treatment that the doctors gave him. Other than that, by telling that it is actually ‘one of those things they do to horses’, Orwell is telling readers that again, this is one of the oddness of Hopital X. It is a technique that Orwell used to convince readers that his experience at Hopital X is undoubtedly miserable. Orwell also manages to convince readers about his miserable experience by comparing Hopital X to hospitals in England. He compared Hopital X to hospitals in England because he happens to have an English blood. Therefore, the comparisons are mainly biased to English hospitals, and hence, more negativity of the French hospital is revealed. The main comparison that Orwell referred to would be the service given from the hospitals. The nurses at the Hopital X â€Å"still had a tinge of Mrs. Gamp† (paragraph 5 line 12), which is the complete opposite from English nurses. Mrs. Gamp is another historical reference that Orwell made. Based on the footnote, Mrs. Gamp is introduced as â€Å"an alcoholic who works as a monthly nurse† (paragraph 19 line 2). Therefore, we can assume that a majority of nurses from Hopital X are like her or in other words, fails to give a good service to their patients. The result of this bad service makes sense to another explanation that Orwell made. When death occurs in Hopital X, the situation is explained as; â€Å"business of people just dying like animals, for instance, with nobody standing by, nobody interested, the death not even noticed till the morning–this happened more than once. † (Paragraph 5 line 3). The main use of these comparisons is to assure past and current readers that French hospitals are surrounded by negativity. Again, this effect is useful in supporting Orwell’s negative point of view of Hopital X. After almost a century, Orwell’s anecdote still has the ability to convince readers about the misery of Hopital X. With the use of literary and historical reference, language use and imagery, and comparison between Hopital X and English hospitals, â€Å"How the Poor Die† definitely proved modern readers about the misery of Hopital X. Therefore, it is safe to say that even if a literature is written a decade or even a century ago, the writing would still be effective if the author successfully address it with deep details. How to cite George Orwell Essay, Essay examples