Blog 2

 In the broadest view of the text, this is a paragraphically structured story with a short sentence at the end of the piece. Upon reading the first paragraph it’s contextually developed that the character talking in the first person is weighing the options of shooting an elephant. This can be depicted linguistically from the heavy modality, like when the author wrote “... I ought to do. I ought to walk up within…” Using the word “ought” is showing a suggestion. When looking at this first paragraph deeper than its contextual meaning, the word “sinking” pops out. The author wrote, “I was a poor shot with a rifle and the ground was soft mud into which one would sink at every step.” Although this does develop the text, it has a second bigger meaning. In each step he takes he gets closer to the elephant where he has to make a decision whether or not to shoot, so for every step he takes sinking deeper into the mud, he is also sinking deeper into committing to a decision. 

Furthering the analysis of this language, a good example of Orwell’s linguistic mastering is in the second to last sentence in the piece which states “The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock.” This too has a second meaning deeper than surface level. Contextually, this sentence describes the breaths that the elephant is taking, the consistent and clock-like breaths. Though, it goes deeper than the timing of the breaths but can be extended to the time the elephant has left. While the “ticking of a clock” may signify the frequency of the breaths, it probably is also significant in the time that the elephant has left to breathe.

As for the structural description of this text, the beginning and end of the text are important. The text begins with the subject that the text is based around, the “I” of the text. This “I” is talking to the reader about what he “ought” to do. This throws us right into the mix of what is going on and is known as in medias res. As for the ending of the text, the author wants to slow down the reader by giving them alone simple sentence stating “In the end, I could not stand it any longer and went away.” This sentence is alone and short because the author probably wants it to stick to the reader's mind as they finish reading the piece. For the order in which the text is formatted, the author used chronological order since it was a story that was being recollected. The casual writing style was a mix showing the formalities of writing: complete sentences, correct punctuation, and proper wordage. As well as the informalities that come with storytelling: em dashes and lots of modalities.

When considering the form of the text, it is important to recognize the first-person narration. When reading the text, it is shown with the use of “I” that the text is in the first person. Beyond this, this story seems to be told from the past tense, with writing like “It was perfectly…” and “I shoved… The rifle was…” This past tense writing combined with the modalities that are often spread throughout the text and the chronological order that the story is delivered in shows that the story is being started through the mind of the writer as it happens or recollection of events from the past that are being written now.