{"id":256,"date":"2017-09-24T13:01:29","date_gmt":"2017-09-24T17:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/?p=256"},"modified":"2017-09-24T13:01:29","modified_gmt":"2017-09-24T17:01:29","slug":"blog-2-shooting-an-elephant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/second-blog-power\/blog-2-shooting-an-elephant\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog 2- Shooting an Elephant"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Orwell\u2019s classic account, \u201cShooting an Elephant,\u201d it can be easily concluded that Orwell himself has the least amount of power. Orwell highlights his powerless predicament when he writes, \u201cAll I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil- spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.\u201d However, it can also be said that perspective matters a lot in this account, and that if it were written from the perspective of a Burmese citizen, the conclusion about power dynamics may appear to be a little different. Taking into account Scott\u2019s notions in \u201cWeapons of the Weak,\u201d one can argue that the British Raj maintains the most power in the system described. Though the Burmese citizens assert some power, especially over Orwell himself, their main role tends to be defying the power that is being exerted over them from the officers. The Burmese people are \u201cfoot dragging\u201d and subtly resisting this authority, while at the same time setting the standard and expectation for how Orwell is to act in order to legitimize his authority. Orwell is socially still their superior, and he still has the recognized power over them even if he is \u201cwearing a mask\u201d which his face has grown to. So, it can be said that the Burmese people are acting as agents of their own subordination, and the British Raj is controlling both Orwell\u2019s and the citizen\u2019s position in the power hierarchy. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Orwell\u2019s classic account, \u201cShooting an Elephant,\u201d it can be easily concluded that Orwell himself has the least amount of power. Orwell highlights his powerless predicament when he writes, \u201cAll I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1742,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-256","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-blog-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1742"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":257,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18f-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}