{"id":121,"date":"2018-02-17T09:23:48","date_gmt":"2018-02-17T14:23:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/?p=121"},"modified":"2018-02-17T09:36:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-17T14:36:13","slug":"determining-power-within-the-victors-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/second-blog-power\/determining-power-within-the-victors-account\/","title":{"rendered":"Orwell’s Got the Power–of the Pen, But Could That Be It?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In \u201cShooting an Elephant,\u201d Orwell presents himself as being the individual with the least agency. In his position as a British officer, he describes his \u201chatred of the empired [he] served and [his] rage against the evil-spirited little beasts,\u201d (1). Orwell\u2019s insecurity abroad leaves him vulnerable to manipulation, and he ultimately serves a will that is not his own. As such, following Havel\u2019s definition of power, Orwell\u2019s mind and body work as one, so as to serve will that directly contrasts the dominated\u2019s beliefs. The Burmese people also derive their power in the manner Scott describes in <\/span>Weapons of the Weak<\/span><\/i>, via an anonymous, \u201ctwo-thousand\u201d (3) person crowd\u2019s constant retaliation to the White Man\u2019s presence. Via the collection of insults towards Orwell, they develop a firm grasp on his psyche, instilling self-doubt in his vulnerability, and they ultimately display their power in getting him to shoot the elephant.<\/span><\/p>\n

Orwell\u2019s first-hand account, however, must be taken as such–a personal rendition of his insecurity abroad. While he offers a variety of powerful candidates–the British Imperialists, the Burmese population–he yield the piece\u2019s climax over to the elephant\u2019s death. By ending with a description of amazement towards event–\u201dthick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die,\u201d (4)–Orwell may be offering a new viewpoint as to who yields the most power: the \u201cgreat beast\u201d (2,4) himself. Moreover, this final turn could reveal further insight into the shame with which he follows the will of the Burmese, and thus too his desire to shift the narrative so as to <\/span>mask<\/span><\/i> this inner turmoil.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In \u201cShooting an Elephant,\u201d Orwell presents himself as being the individual with the least agency. In his position as a British officer, he describes his \u201chatred of the empired [he] served and [his] rage against the evil-spirited little beasts,\u201d (1). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1887,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-second-blog-power"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1887"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121\/revisions\/123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.williams.edu\/18s-psci204\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}