2. Summary The story takes place in Moulmein, Burma, a colony of the British government. The main character is an English police officer working there who is struggling with his internal conflict. He holds a deep hatred towards his own job and the British imperialism. Although he has a distaste for the hatred from the Burmese, he actually feels sympathy for those people, who have been suffering …show more content…
There are a lot of informal words that can be found in everyday life conversations which express the author’s personal ideas and opinions like “petty” (181), “damn shame”(186), “damn Coringhee”(186). Also, Latins words such as “saccula sacculorum” meaning eternity and “in terrorem” meaning to fear are also used to illustrate the main character’s thought throughout the two continuous passages. Furthermore, the word “must , which means aggressiveness and sexual activities for male elephant according to Wikipedia, is repeated several times to emphasize the condition the animal is undergoing at the moment and also to justify for the man’s action. Local words are found in the text as well such as “mahout” (a person who works with, rides, cares for an elephant), or “sahib” (to address European man in India in the past), or “bazaar” (market) according to Oxford dictionary. Besides, the words used to describe the Burmese like “yellowish”, “beast”, “devilish”, hideous”, “damn” show a racial perspective from a white man. However, the narrator still shows his grief at their sufferings. Also, the long description of the agony of the dying elephant written places emphasis on the creature’s painful death which is moving. -The essay is well illustrated with varied types and lengths of sentences as well as choices of words.
- words to express the British imposition of dominance : “riot”, “target”, “imperialism”,
“oppressors”, …show more content…
- text adverb phrases are extensively used to provide facts about time, place and actions : “ in Moulmein, in lower Burma” or “he was breathing very rhythmically with long rattling gasps”
- The verbs are used to show the descriptive context and change in the narrator’s attitude.
Also, there’s a mixture of the past and present tenses “I thought then and think now …”, “seemed”, “imagined”, “remember” - Figurative