A Day Of Rest

A Day of Rest

Have you ever had to do something that you didn't want to do? Something that may have been against your beliefs? Has someone ever tried pressuring you into doing that? I think that everyone, at least once in their life, has had to do something that they aren't necessarily proud of. There are so many different pressures and points of view around us that make it hard to stick to our beliefs all the time. Sometimes even friends, or people that we trust try to get us to do these things. Some people have a power over us that we just can't say no to.

George Orwell was a police officer in Lower Burma. He was hated by many people not only because he was white, but because of the British Imperialism that he was involved in. One day there was an elephant on the loose in the streets of Burma; the elephant was in a temporary state which was called must, and would wear off. It was running crazy wild and the people wanted something done about it. When Orwell found the elephant and heard that it had killed someone, he knew that he should shoot it. As he sat and watched the elephant for a little while he noticed that a rather large crowd had accumulated behind him. He sat with a rifle in his hands not knowing what to do.

The elephant had calmed down a lot and seemed to be going back to normal. You would think that there was no reason to shoot this perfectly good animal, but soon Orwell felt the pressure of the eager natives behind him. They wanted that elephant dead. Even though he saw no point in shooting the elephant, he didn't want to look like a fool. As the bullet penetrated the elephant, the crowd cheered. As the elephant struggled to stand he shot again. Collapsing to the ground, the crowd rushed towards the animal. As it lay breathing heavily, Orwell took two last shots.

It took a half an hour for the elephant to die. Many people spread the word about the elephant. Natives were happy with the outcome, while the Europeans were divided. The younger generation thought that there was no need to kill the animal, since it was of such great worth. While the older Europeans thought that it was the right thing to do. As Orwell went on to explain his feelings, he said that he was glad that the native had died, since it almost gave him an excuse for killing the elephant. He didn't believe that it was the right thing to do, yet because of the pressure that was put on him, he did it anyways.

When I was hired on at my job I told my boss that I wasn't available to work Sundays. He said that was fine but seeing as the movie theater is open 365 days a year, I had to work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years. I wasn't too happy that I would have to work on holidays, but I took the job anyways. Thanksgiving came, I had dinner with my family, and then headed off to work. It wasn't bad at all. There were plenty of customers there to keep us busy.

Christmas season rolled around and I came to find out that it was going to be on a Sunday that year and like I was told before, everyone had to work. I didn't know what I was going to do. My boss knew that I, along with many other employees, didn't work on Sundays. Needless to say, we all got scheduled anyways. As the day came, I spent the morning with my family having a blast! I was able to go to my church services as well as open presents. This was the first time in a long time that all of my siblings and their families were in town at once. I was having a wonderful day filled with fun and family when I remembered that I had to go to work. Not only on Christmas, but on Sunday. I had grown up believing that Sunday was a day of rest, that you don't work on Sunday. There was nothing that I could do about it though, and with a sad heart I went to work.

As I arrived to work I noticed that the parking lot was extremely empty. That was surprising to me since Thanksgiving had been such a busy night! There were six employees and two managers