Free Will in Shooting an Elephant and Antigone :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Free Will in Shooting an Elephant and Antigone Free leave tidy sum be defined as The right, precondition to humans by God, to make their own decisions. A mans rationalise will cannot be destroyed by any power other than God. Humans can always exercise their free will when making decisions. However, when their decisions come in conflict with the laws set by a higher power, they might face consequences ground on how they choose to use their free will. The more restrictions imposed upon someones free will the more restricted their ability to make decisions become. The boundary to which someone may exercise their free will can be defined as their exemption. Therefore, the more laws imposed upon someones free will the more restricted their freedom. Although no power, save God, can destroy free will, they can limit and even destroy someones freedom. In the essay Shooting an Elephant George Orwell argues that, when the unclouded man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he des troys (Orwell, 704). Free will is indestructible an example of Orwells destruction of freedom but preservation of free will is given in his essay. In Antigone an example of how even though higher powers can limit your decisions they cannot stop you from exercising your free will. According to Orwell his freedom was destroyed when he took on the role of the tyrant. His job was that of a sub-divisional police officer in Lower Burma. A crisis arose in which he was faced with a hard decision to make. An elephant had gone on a rampage in the village and had destroyed countless huts and killed a man. When Orwell came upon the elephant it was clear to him that it had calmed down and that the elephant would cause no more harm to anyone. Orwell was faced with a decision he could either shoot the beast or wait until his master came to get him. However, this decision was do much more complicated. Orwell was surrounded by two thousand Burmans who, as Orwell said, were watching me as the y would watch a conjurer about to perform a magic trick. Although the Burmans were all underneath him and subject to him, he was very concerned about what they thought he should do. He was so concerned in event he concluded that he had to do as they wished of him.