The rhetorical effect in the first sentence wants to show how the elephant's action was disproportionate to its end. The rhetorical effect in the second sentence is to show how there is no difference between the dominant and the dominated in imperialism.
How can the rhetorical effect be identified?
- The rhetorical effect refers to the way the author organizes the words so that they subjectively convey a message, which needs the reader's interpretation.
- When Orwell introduces the phrase “merely ravaging their homes,” he meant to show that the elephant's action was small, but he had to pay for that action with death, slow and painful.
- He claims that the crowd, afraid of the elephant, didn't want to see what he was doing, but the moment he was shot, everyone was very interested.
- This interest in dominating, controlling, and killing the rebels was present in the population of Burma, as it is present in the British people and this is the rhetorical effect of the phrase "as it would be to an English crowd."
- With this, he shows that the British population thought itself superior to the population of Burma, but they are equal.
Orwell wanted these two sentences to express his opinion against imperialism and its effects.
More information about imperialism is in the link:
https://brainly.com/question/1037555
