The Power of Fallacies

It is very interesting how George Orwell’s essay Shooting an Elephant contain various fallacies. Fallacies are fundamental in all speeches and essays. I’m guessing the reason is because all of these have rhetoric. Most of the writing we have access to has the direct or indirect intention to manipulate the audience’s minds.

 At the beginning of his essay, Orwell uses the all-natural fallacy, he is assuming that all officer have the same trait. He says “as a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever seemed safe to do so.” Here he is assuming that all police officers are targets. The fact that part of the population sees the policemen as a possible object for their principals doesn’t mean that all of it does. Orwell is exaggerating. This is all a strategic way of manipulating the authors mind with the use of fallacies and rhetoric.

Orwell, I thought you respected more your audience. The deception! The way you closed your essay is not kind at all. Killing an elephant has a lot of consequences; don’t try to feel good only because you want a way out. Yes, the elephant hared the population and for a moment cause chaos to the community, however this doesn’t make your actions reasonable. I know that in the moment you thought about this but you didn’t care. You were pushed by the community to kill it so you had no way out. Still, this pressure doesn’t take away the actions of the owner. Referring the owner as “only an Indian” is offending. Here you are using the fallacy of ignorance. You are assuming that since it is an Indian your act will have no consequences. Don’t be so ignorant, think in others as well the fact that “the Indian” is poor doesn’t mean that you can refer to him like that.

Ultimately, we can see how the authors sometimes use modes of rhetoric to manipulate the audience. These modes also persuade to make a closer relation with the reader. The use of fallacies is seen in all pieces of writing. Now,  I’m an expert identifying this incorrect reasoning the author makes to manipulate and persuade us.