Blog 4.4

  The essay "Shooting the Elephant" by George Orwell is an essay in the first person. The main focus of the excerpt is the shooting of an elephant that took place in front of an audience. The form, structure, and lexical choices that George Orwell inputs into the excerpt creates a problematic and conflicting tone in the story. 

    The author of "Shooting the Elephant", George Orwell, wrote the essay in a chronological or sequential order. This means that the excerpt takes place from which the events occurred, from the first event in the story and the rest are in order until the last event in the story. The author inputs chronological order for the structure of the text because it gives the reader a stable understanding of the text. For example, if George Orwell wrote "Shooting the Elephant" in haphazardly or disorderly then the audience wouldn't be able to fully grasp the text. The excerpt also contains larger paragraphs that tie into each other through the first and last sentences of each paragraph. For example, in the third paragraph the last sentence is "with a crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay". The next paragraph begins with "I got up. The Burmans were already racing past me across the mud". This shows the chronological order that George Orwell had inserted and it shows how each paragraph ties into each other. 

    "Shooting the Elephant" is an essay, but the focus is on the segment from the essay by George Orwell. The form of  "Shooting the Elephant" is an essay. An essay is free form by definition, which Orwell uses the free form method with his writing. It is seen within his writing with the sentence structure. The sentence formation is very loose and the sentences are larger than the precedent. The sentences are grouped together using hyphens and commas to add more to each sentence. The writing is also narrative and informal. The author, George Orwell, is explaining the story from his point of view, making the story a narrative piece. The writing is informal, meaning it is written to be more casual. Since formal writing doesn't include the words "I" or "We", the excerpt from "Shooting the Elephant" is informal because of the thorough use of the word "I" as seen in the text. 

    George Orwell has a direct style with his writing. Orwell states what is happening within the story without employing an allusion or any distractions from what is occurring within the story. Orwell also inputs an abundance of adjectives to get the full descriptions of the setting, characters, and events that occur or are identified in "Shooting the Elephant". For example, in paragraph four of the excerpt from "Shooting the Elephant"  it includes "His mouth was wide open- I could see far down into the caverns of pale pink throat", it is seen within the quote from the text that George Orwell includes many adjectives and hyphens in his writing to further advance the plot and describe the setting or events within it.