Politics and the English Language; Shooting an Elephant

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Overview

George Orwell wrote two essays that are often read together. Politics and the English Language, published in 1946, argues that vague and pretentious writing both reflects and encourages muddled thinking, and that political speech often exists to make dishonest things sound respectable. Shooting an Elephant, published in 1936, describes a colonial police officer in Burma who kills an elephant largely to avoid looking foolish. Together they examine how language and power distort honesty.

Context

Orwell, born Eric Blair, served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma in the 1920s, then became a writer who opposed both imperialism and totalitarianism. The 1946 essay came after the Second World War, as propaganda and political euphemism were widely discussed. The two pieces are ten years apart but share the question of how people end up saying and doing things they do not believe.