Stand Up!!!
In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell narrates how a police officer kills an elephant to illustrate the effects of imperialism. Just like the police officer, we will be in situations in which we have to choose either to conform or stand up for our valves.
In the essay “Why Don’t We Complain?,” William Buckley Jr. states the different reasons why people don’t complain. One to avoid embarrassment or the anticipation that someone else will take the initiative to speak up. Although the police officer wasn’t necessarily put in a situation to complain, he was put in a position to stand up for what he believed was the right thing to do. Instead he ignored his conscience and shot the elephant. Choosing this decision, he had to face the agonizing slow death of the elephant.
Making decisions to please others has its consequences, not necessary to those you are trying to please, but mostly to you. The people you please are definitely not concerned about you but themselves. As soon as the elephant died, the people stripped off that elephant to its bones. This proves the fact that the people only wanted him to kill the elephant in order to get a nicely cooked elephant.
I guess after high school most of us have already experienced this pressure. The policeman experience could also be compared to Eric Liu’s situation in “Notes of a Native Speaker.” Liu tried to please the ladies by trying to change his hair in his search for identity. In Eric Liu’s case, it was through conformity that he was able to find his true self.
When is the right time to conform or to stand up for your valves? You be the judge.
3 comments:
The right time to stand up for your values is anytime you feel necessary. No one should be able to make you compromise your morals and values for anything, and that holds true in too many situations. If you could be easily swayed into doing what you feel is righ t, and doing what everyone else thinks is right, then you weren't as adamant as you first thought.
Sometimes doing the right thing is clean cut, black and white. But other times it takes a lot of objective thinking to decide what truly is best.
You should certainly stand up for what you believe to be true, but don't be afraid to stick yourself in someone else's shoes and really ponder some things. Think about why what they're doing is the right thing in their minds. Think about what they might have gone through in their past to make them think that way. Then work from there.
The decision to shoot the elephant may have seemed simple, but it wasn't.
Everyone has the right to stand up for what they personally believe in. I agree with Edikan because you aren't going to be heard until you speak up. Sometimes you have to do things to please yourself, and forget what other people think.
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