It is not easy to please everyone at all times. Sometimes the people around a person and the society places enormous pressure to conform and fit into the norms and traditions followed by them that an individual has to compromise his or her beliefs and ideals just to fit in and to be accepted. Fitting in could sometimes involve proving that a person is manly enough, subscribes to certain religious beliefs and does things that do not stand out from the rest of the community. Compromise and ‘fitting in’ is a theme that is discussed by George Orwell in Shooting an Elephant and Langston Hughes in Salvation. In these essays, the authors describe a situation in which the protagonist is made to compromise on their ideals and beliefs to please people around them and to ‘fit in’. Although both compromise, their reactions to their compromises are quite different.
The pressure to confirm can be a result of trying to please the people around or to not look like a fool. In the essays, the lead characters compromise so that the people around them would be pleased and not look at them as if they were cowards. In Salvation, Langston Hughes is taken to a revival meeting in his aunt’s church. There people are asked to come to the front of the church to accept Jesus Christ as their saviour and feel his presence in them. The adults in the church and the kids experience this feelings or at least pretend to except Langston and another boy. When the boy finally gives in, it is just Langston. As the people around him pray, Langston waits dutifully to feel God’s presence in him. He says, “ The whole congregation prayed for me alone, in a mighty wail of moans and voices. And I kept waiting serenely for Jesus, waiting, waiting - but he didn't come. I wanted to see him, but nothing happened to me. Nothing! I wanted something to happen to me, but nothing happened (Langston 2).” Although Langston does not feel the holy spirit within him or the presence of God in him,he dutifully waits. But soon it is too much for him to bear. As the people’s expectations around him soar and it is getting late, he gets up to signal that he has felt the holy spirit. Even though he hasn’t felt anything of that sort, he compromises just to please his aunt and the people from the congregation. In Orwell’s essay, the narrator recounts an incident from Burma where he was forced to shoot an elephant. The elephant had run amok and damaged things in the Bazaar. By the time the narrator reaches the place, it had also trampled a coolie. The narrator could see that the elephant had calmed down by now and that shooting it was not needed. However he also says that, “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly (Orwell 4).” The natives had followed the narrator and was expecting him to shoot it. The narrator gives in because he does not want to look like a coward and be laughed at by the natives. So in spite of his beliefs in not killing an animal unwanted, he goes ahead and shoots it. Both Langston and the narrator are pressure to confirm to an ideal that would please the people around them.
The way they both react to their actions however is different. both are not happy with what they had done. However Langston has the worst reaction to his compromise. When in bed that night, he starts crying. Although his aunt thinks that this is a result of the holy spirit in him, Langston knows that he is crying because he had lied and cheated everyone. He also cries because he not only did not feel the presence of the holy spirit but also has lost his faith. He says that he lost his belief because Jesus was not there to help him. The narrator in Orwell’s essay however has a different reaction. He is relieved. He is not happy but is relieved that he would not be taken to task. He succeeded in not looking like a fool in front of the natives and also was in the clear legally because he had every reason to shoot the elephant since it had killed a coolie. While Langston feels remorse and is ashamed of his action, there is a sense of relief in the Orwell’s narrator. Langston cannot accept his actions while the narrator in Orwell's essay tries to accept it as well as justify it to himself.
The two essays thus deal with the issues of compromise and ‘fitting in’. An individual has to either let go of his beliefs and ideals to conform or at least pretend that he or she has given in to the needs and desires of the other people. Pleasing them and looking like a man are the reasons both these protagonists let go of their stance. They are not happy about it even though they deal with it in completely different ways. In trying to confirm to the majority, the two characters end up deceiving the others. Langston tries his best not to deceive the others in to thinking that he has found God but they leave him with little option. The narrator in Orwell’s essay too is none too pleased at the prospect of shooting an elephant as he considers it murder. But the people here too leave him with very little option. The two are thus pressurized to confirm to certain norms laid out by the society. In order to fit in they compromise.
Works Cited
Hughes, Langston. Salvation.
Orwell, George. Shooting an Elephant.
