Ethos, Pathos, and Logos in Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
The novel Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell is a persuasive rhetorical story regarding his own experiences at the time he served as a sub-divisional police officer in charge of a town in Burma during the period when Britain was exercising imperialism over other countries. As the person exercising authority on behalf of the Crown, the narrator learns of an elephant that is wreaking havoc at a market and immediately goes to the scene prepared to manage the situation. Once at the scene, he realizes that if he does not manage to kill the elephant the public will make fun of him, as they have done on many occasions in the past. In order to avoid being laughed at (315), Orwell ends up shooting the animal, which suffers a painful death. Although, he uses a flimsy excuse for killing the animal in a brutal manner, the official report vindicates the narrator’s actions. Throughout the novel, Orwell uses persuasive language to communicate. He uses ethos, logos, and pathos to make the story believable to readers.
With regard to ethos, at the beginning the narrator introduces himself and provides information that enables the reader to have a vivid idea of who he is, where he is, what he is doing, for whom, and by whose authority. Once the audiences have the necessary information to understand who the narrator is, they can trust him to provide a narrative that is based on fact. One instance where the narrator uses ethos is when he says, “For at that time, I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better” (Orwell 312). The narrator is trying to make himself appear honest by painting himself as an innocent person who does not have a choice but to continue serving at the behest of the imperial regime. Accordingly, Orwell appeals to ethical issues regarding the decision of killing the elephant. He tries to present himself as harmless person when he expresses his emotion of the way he does not want to kill the elephant but he has to do it because of the circumstances. He says, “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him” (316). By posing as a person who does not enjoy taking part in causing harm to other, the author intends to appeal to the audiences who have already judged him because of the race he belongs to and his position to reconsider their perception and trust his narrative. When readers are able to trust the narrator from the beginning, it becomes an inspiration for them to believe the information that the narrator is providing while also motivating them to continue reading.
On the other hand, the narrator uses pathos in a bid to ensure that readers become emotionally involved as they read the story. Orwell does this by choosing the right words that he uses to describe his experiences. For instance, when he arrives at the scene, he describes it in a manner that makes the reader visualize what exactly is happening. Narrators use arguments that seem to emanate from their hearts to bring out emotions and feelings that make the audience relive the experiences of the narrator just by reading the narrative. For instance, by saying, “the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves” (312), the narrator is expressing how the people of Burma mistreat him and is seeking to have his audience sympathize with his situation. Other Pathos in the narrative include at the very beginning when the narrator says, “I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me” (312). This statement causes the readers to ask themselves how the narrator is and why the Burma people are mistreating him and in the process of answering these questions, readers either sympathize or become angry, fearful, or even hateful. By using pathos, Orwell is appealing to his audience to be concerned about the issues he is addressing.
Regarding logos, it refers to a situation where the narrator appeals to logic by providing reason for what one is writing. An example of the narrator’s us of logos is when he provides his reasons for shooting the elephant even though he says that his initial intention was not to kill the animal, but in the end he states that he shoots the animal because he does not want the crowd to tease him for his inability to control the elephant. He states, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (318). The narrator also justifies his reason for killing the elephant by blaming the animal for killing a coolie. He states that he was glad the elephant killed the coolie because it provided him with sufficient reason to shoot the animal. This is apparent when he states, “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” (318). With the above statement, the audience that the narrator is targeting is himself and the hateful town residents. Because he has done the “right thing” by killing the elephant and averting further damage by the beast, he believes that his has won the hearts of his haters and hopes that they will start treating him with the respect he deserves.
Work Cited
Davis, Roger and Laura K. Davis. Essay Writing for Canadian Students with Readings, Eighth
Edition. Ontario: Pearson Canada Inc., 2016.
