Lesson 10

I began this lesson by reviewing some reading assignments and the assignment this week was to pick one essay and writing something on it for the Discussion Board.

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
I like this essay because it clearly shows the struggle between man's desire to do what he wants to do versus doing what is expected of him by others. The man in the story initially wanted to shoot the elephant and ended up attracting a great deal of attention in his pursuit of this goal. When he actually came face to face with the elephant, however, the man saw no value in shooting it because it was clearly striving to be as productive as it could possibly be. A hype been created, however, and the crowd wanted to see the goal accomplished even if the man himself did not want to see it achieved. Isn't it funny how sometimes we ourselves lose the desire to accomplish a goal, but keep pursuing the goal simply because others expect us not to quit. Quitting a goal over discomfort is often viewed by society as showing weakness and society would rather see people accomplish things than be comfortable with the choices they make. People often make choices not because they want to, but because they want to avoid looking foolish, as the man did in the essay. It is unfortunate that we have grown to care less about ourselves and what we are comfortable with because society dictates such a thing as being selfish. For the crowd, the actual shooting of the elephant was very climactic, but for the man himself, he felt no joy in accomplishing his goal simply because it was not his own anymore.

The theme of this essay is the joy that an individual sacrifices when they give up their own will and pursue goals simply because peer pressure demands it. When the man comes to realize that he himself does not want to shoot the elephant because it is being productive, he is finally honest with himself about the fact that there is no joy to be found in doing so. A sad, but very clear epiphany comes to pass in the man's heart and mind when he admits to himself that he only ended up shooting the elephant because he did not want to look foolish in front of those who wanted a show.

I read the other two essays and then turned my attention to the day's Grammar Lesson, which concerned pronouns. I took the quiz twice and got 100% on the second try.

I also watched a video on Paragraph and Essay Development about Elements of a Personal Essay and read a handout about it.