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\baselineskip=13pt\parskip=3pt
\def\\{\par\noindent}\\
Holden Rohrer and Youssef Layous\\
Jones\\
AP Lang\\
2 Dec 2019\\
{\bf Paraphrase}
I am a British police officer stationed in an Indian city, and therefore lack any respect from the locals---all of whom find me a ridiculous European, especially the Buddhists.
I agree with them: my status as a representative of imperialism gives them just cause, especially given all the horrendous things I myself have done.
I feel guilty for extending the empire, so I hate it, but so too do I hate the locals.
One day, I received a call that an elephant was rampaging upon the town.
The elephant had struck down a hut, killed a cow, and raided a market because it was a tame elephant in ``must.''
All seemed straightforward, but when I reached the area, little information was available.
The people knew neither its location nor its movements, and the area remained chaotic.
Nonetheless, I discovered (with some aid of local officials) a man who was trampled by the elephant so violently the skin off his back was torn cleanly.
The orderly gave me a more powerful rifle than what I had arrived with, intending to only scare the beast.
But as the people had seen my rifle, they followed me out to the elephant, forming a large, unnerving crowd across the road.
I felt obliged to indulge the crowd; they wanted to see the elephant dead, so I had to give it to them so that I would not be laughed at.
But when I saw the elephant my opinion changed immediately. I could not kill such a magnificent beast, simply grazing the marshy fields, but I had to.
Despite the natives' uncoercive, unarmed status, I (even as an armed white man) still had to impress them as a matter of duty.
For some time, I watched the elephant beat grass across his knees and chew it slowly. It would be wrong to kill such an animal, so I had to determine some method of avoidance.
I chose a slow approach ended with gunshots to the elephant if he charged me, but quickly I recognized that I would very easily become that man dead by the elephants' hooves.
I could not retreat, for I would be laughed at, but I couldn't approach and fail.
I had to shoot the elephant.
I got down on the ground, and shot him four or five times, the crowd cheering at each.
While this did not kill the elephant for he is yet formidable against a .44 rifle, it crippled him.
The locals raced towards the elephant lying there helplessly while he died slowly, blood spurting out of his heart.
I left, but later I heard that it took the beast half an hour to fully die.
Afterwards, the incident was discussed at length, even by other Europeans.
Half thought I had chosen wrong because the elephant was such a valuable creature.
The other segment sided with me, if only because I had legally done the right thing.
\bigskip
{\bf Central Argument}
Imperialism is a cruel tradition that drives even those in power to act heinously.
The pressures of appeasing both the natives (whom hate the enforcer) and one's superiors necessarily leads to poor and rash decision-making, often even encouraging unrighteous decisions.
\bigskip
{\bf Assertions}
1. ``Theoretically, I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.'
``As a police officer, I was an obvious target.''
The police officer's dilemma is clear because he can neither follow his own sense of propriety and appease the locals (because his job required cruelty), but also he cannot fully engage the British ruling because then he would become ultimately unfavored with the Burmese.
2. ``[Shooting the elephant] was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before the real nature of imperialism---the real motives for which despotic governments act.''
``Besides, legally I had done the right thing.'
Imperialist ideas necessarily permit mismanagement because the government doesn't have a strong enough hold upon the local administration to maintain their own goals.
But the colonizer has too strong of control that the natives lack autonomy.
Instead of deliberate decisions made from on high or by the grassroots, rash and improper decisions take its place.
\bigskip
{\bf Words}
Saecula Saeculorum = ``for ever and ever; for eternity''
\bigskip
{\bf Rhetorical Strategies}
\bye
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