Analysis Of George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'

Firstly, when I read Orwell's work I was really shocked, my feelings were vague like my mind was in a haze. The writer tells about his life back in Burma as a police officer. I felt the struggle because of

George Orwell describes to us in “Shooting an elephant” the struggle that his character faces when to win the mobs approval and respect when he shoots down an innocent animal and sacrifices what he believes to be right. Orwell is a police officer in Moulmein, during the period of the British occupation of Burma. An escaped elephant gives him the opportunity to prove himself in front of his people and to be able to become a “somebody” on the social

Two of Orwell’s first literary works were his essays regarding his experiences as a policeman in Burma during imperialization from Europe. These essays include “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.” In these essays, he shows his clear disagreement of oppression, even while working for the oppressors. Orwell writes

All the fuss, actions he was encouraged to make, lead back to his job he had to do, which was one he despised. Orwell’s introduction makes it very clear he doesn't not like being a police officer and especially does not like imperialism. “For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.” (Orwell,1963,pg. 1) He wanted nothing to do with imperialism, he was all for the Burmese. He didn't believe in the cruel ways the British had forced him to act on. His words are spread among many sentences created this harsh tone. He was furious he was considered part of the imperialism. He was in the group though, and being part of this came with responsibility and standards. Orwell had to prove he was worthy and could hold up his end

spend hid life in trying to impress the ?natives' and so in every crisis he has

Orwell should have had someone else soot the animal because he knew he was a bad shot, and he was not sure where he needed to aim to kill the elephant

Orwell next faces the moral dilemma of whether or not to shoot the elephant. At first, it is clear that he does not feel the internal urge to shoot the elephant: "It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him" (Orwell.525). However, Orwell's virtue becomes dwarfed as the Burmese's "two thousand wills [press him] forward"(524) to kill the elephant. At this point there is an obvious role reversal as the Burmese begin to strongly influence Orwells decisions. Because he constantly dwells on what the crowd will think of him he shoots the elephant. Thus submitting to the will of the people and committing the immoral deed of abandoning ones own conscious because of the pressure of others.

Orwell was able to catch the reader’s eye when making a point of imperialism using significance. The elephant had to do with significance a lot because it is the main reason people can tell what the point of the story is. The purpose of the narrative was clear by the end when the young men said Orwell did wrong in killing the elephant and the older men said

Orwell recalls an event that happened to him while he was a British police officer in Burma. One day in Burma, Orwell receives a report that an elephant has gone a “must”. While investigating, he hears the screams of terrified children. Orwell rushes to the scene and discovers the corpse of an Indian with obvious elephant foot markings all over his body. When Orwell finally tracks down the elephant, “he was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth” (Orwell 279). Orwell immediately realizes he shouldn’t shoot it, because the elephant is tame and calm. In addition to the behavior of the elephant, Orwell also considers how shooting the elephant would affect its owner, because a working elephant is worth 100 euros alive versus a measly 5 euros dead. Although Orwell believes the elephant is “no more dangerous than a cow”, he ultimately chooses to let his perceived thoughts of the crowd force him to take action opposite of his personal beliefs (Orwell 280). Instead of reaping the benefits of his beliefs, Orwell pays a consequence for his

Orwell’s initial descriptions of Burman natives contrast European racism with human empathy, humanizing the narrator and showing internal struggle. Orwell emphasizes this conflict in “I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible” (Paragraph 2). Orwell hates the oppressive nature of the British Empire, yet also disdains the Burmans and feels superiority over them. His moral conscience recognizes imperialism as inhumane, leading for Orwell to despise his duty as the enforcer of it. Orwell feels confined to his role as a helpless enforcer of imperialism, yet hates the Burmans and denotes them as “evil-spirited little beasts”

Many of the reasons he does not want to shoot the elephant are for the wrong reasons though. At the time he finds the elephant he says, “it is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant - it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery - and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided.” Doing a bad thing is not the same as being a bad person. By most accounts people regard Orwell as a great author. His most famous books focusing on social inequality.

Causing Orwell to gain peer pressure towards him actually ‘having no choice but to kill the beast’ (137). Even though the people of Burma called for his help, they still expect him to shoot down the animal even if Orwell ‘doesn’t intend to’ (136) do so. Yet he was told what the elephant had done, which was: ‘ravaging the bazaar’ (134), ‘destroyed someone’s bamboo hut, killed a cow, raided fruit stands and devoured the stock, turned a van over and inflicted violence upon it…, squished a man’s dead body sprawled onto the floor’

In the passage, Orwell mentioned how having a crowd to follow him suddenly felt like they were urging him to shoot it. The only issue about this is that Orwell had no desire to shoot the animal because it was not causing any harm nor danger to anyone, but he became aware that if he did not shoot the elephant, he will suddenly become a fool. He had two options to choose from, and it was either to leave the elephant alone, and simply walk and deal with the natives hateful comments, or ignore his conscious and shoot the elephant. While he has to carefully decide what to do, he was left confused about choosing his reputation and have it ruined or to shoot the elephant and let pride take its

Orwell employs symbolism as a major literary technique, aiding our understanding of his stance against colonialism and our understanding of the setting. From the start, it is clear that he represents the modern, the western industrial English, at complete odds with the rural and primitive Burmese. It is believed that the focal symbolic point would be the narrators stand against the elephant. In the paragraph in which the narrator fires at the elephant, it is seen as docile, not bothering anyone anymore and having only made a sporadic wrong. The narrator then fires at the quite calm elephant once, but it does not fall and so, while it is still weak, he fires two more shots, bringing the magnificent creature down. Burma (The country in which the story is situated) has a long history of wars with the British Empire before finally giving in to Colonialism; three wars to be exact. It can be seen in the history books that Burma only wronged the British in a minor way and in fact was not directly bothering the British Raj and much like the narrator, it

The Burmese abhorred Orwell, and would antagonize him when possible. Orwell, however, felt different feelings towards the Burmese people. He had secretly been for the Burmese cause, and against their aggressor ― the British. His job as a sub-divisional police officer gave Orwell further insight into the ‘dirty work’ of the British Empire, and caused him to strongly dislike his occupation. The British huddled the oppressed, naked, abused prisoners and long-term convicts into stinking, dank jails and struck them into submission with bamboo. This