Belonging Related Text Essay

George Orwell’s essays – related text ‘Marrakech’ explores the notion of ethnocentricity through a Eurocentric perspective, in which one is isolated at the consequence of differing morels. Orwell succeeds in doing so through various anecdotes “What does Morocco mean to a Frenchman? An orange-grove or a job in government service. ” In essence this displays the failure of a migrant to withhold a deeper connection to the land. Orwell emotively describes the crippled elderly women who “answered with a shrill wail, almost a scream, which was partly gratitude but mainly surprise”, as a response to the charity he provided her with.

The dramatic reaction displays her sense of alienation from her own homeland, at fault of those who are foreign, yet awfully powerful. This is furthered through the description of “the shy, wide-eyed Negro” where through his ignorance, he “has been taught that the white race are his masters, and still believes it. ” A sense of melancholy pervades this essay through the harsh truth “How much longer can we go on kidding these people? ” displaying the indigenous peoples disconnection to a place that was originally theirs.

While ‘Marrakech’ explores the notion that one does not belong to their homeland. This is juxtaposed through ‘Shooting an Elephant’ with Orwell’s alternative experience of belonging. Through Orwell’s ambivalence we see the highly controversial understanding of “the hollowness.. of the white man’s dominion in the East. ” It is ironic that a “sub-divisional police officer” should feel self-conscious with such authority. Controversially he “was all for the Burmese” juxtaposed to the grotesque imagery of his deepest desire to “drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts.