close-reading: “Shooting an Elephant”
1. Identify the speaker’s various tones in the text. Create a chart that links
diction with distinct connotations to the tones these words suggest.
2. Mark and discuss the various tone shifts in the text.
3. Consider the point of view of the text. What varied and precise words
best describe the speaker’s complex personality and emotions?
4. Analyze the pathos and ethos of the text. How does our perception of the
speaker change throughout the text? How does this change relate to his
purpose and impact his message for the audience?
5. List juxtapositions in the text. Contemplate how these contrasts convey
the text’s deeper irony.
6. Consider the elephant as a symbolic entity. What does it represent and
why?
7. Determine themes of the text. How do these themes relate to
Frankenstein, The Things They Carried, and our Socratic seminar prompt?