Characterism In Shooting An Elephant, By George Orwell

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

“Shooting an Elephant” is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man, Orwell, who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, along with the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He states, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.

When the policeman decides to help the people of Moulmein, in lower Burma, he lets them believe his gun is going to be used to shoot the elephant, because of the presser the crowd puts on him. The protagonist struggles throughout life due to the fact that most people despise him. The text states that, “I was hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me,” (17). The people have the authority over the hatred that is directed towards the protagonist. They control if he is accepted or outcasted. The policeman was looking for a way not to be hated, so he decides to help with chaos that the elephant has created. He grabs his gun and then is confronted with a crowd that normally would have no interest in him. For example, “They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant,” (19). The magical rifle in his hands makes him seem worth paying attention to. This is because the policeman can shoot the elephant and give the people what they want. The protagonist was not intending to shoot the elephant so, he did not tell the crowd that he was going to use the rifle for protection. This may be because, he was looking for a

George Orwell who wrote a narrative essay Shooting an Elephant” has a tense tone of literature towards his life. He is using a stressed tone due to peer pressure, and lack of confidence toward himself as he is an imperialist who came to protect uphold the laws. He's difficult attitude sets the scene for the story in his eyes. Throughout the story the concept of his decisions and action will be projected through the uses of diction; the write words to express his feelings.

and disrupting the little bit of peace that they have. So in that instant he

Imagine being placed in a situation that holds the fate of a breathing elephant, the largest land animal in the world. Would you spare its life or begin the end of it in a blink of an eye? In Eric Arthur Blair’s essay Shooting An Elephant, George Orwell, arguably Blair himself, was once confronted with this very question. As an English police officer in Burma during the Age of Imperialism, Orwell was called upon to investigate an aggressive elephant that was ravaging a local bazaar and later discovered, even killed a man. When he finally located the mammal, “at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow” (Orwell 2). Orwell’s immediate thoughts were that he ought not to shoot the creature “I had no intention of shooting the elephant--I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary” (2). However, Orwell’s initial thoughts would not be put into action. Orwell would later go on to kill the elephant with three shots aimed at the brain as over two thousand native people

Story is about a Burma village where an elephant got loose and wreaked havoc on the town and kills a villager (a man). George Orwell is the sheriff and ultimately makes the choice to kill the elephant.

The white man’s burden is an idea that the white men have a job to take care of the uncivilized beings and develop them to be a more socially endowed race. Their belief that they are superior to the natives is where this is rooted. This idea excused racism and portrayed it as more of a positive element in our society, rather than the destructive mechanism that it actually is. It also caused white men to truly believe that they are better than any other race out there. In “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, the narrator’s brain is subconsciously imbedded with this notion. He claims to be opposed to imperialism and everything about it while also hating his job and the people associated with it. These two things cannot go hand in hand.

In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell achieves two achievements : he shows us his personal experience and his expression while he was in Burma; he use the metaphor of the elephant to explain to describe what Burma looked like when it was under the British Imperialism. The special about this essay is that Orwell tells us a story not only to see the experience that he had in Burma; he also perfectly uses the metaphor of the elephant to give us deep information about the Imperialism. By going through this essay, we can deeply understand what he thinks in his head. He successfully uses the word choices and the sentences to express his feeling. By reading this essay, Orwell succeeds us with his mesmerizing sentences and shows us the

Throughout "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, he addresses his  internal battle with the issues of morality and immorality. He writes of several situations that show his immoral doings. When George Orwell signed up for a five-year position as a British officer in Burma he was unaware of the moral struggle that he was going to face. Likewise, he has an internal clash between his moral conscious and his immoral actions. Therefore, Orwell becomes a puppet to the will of the Burmese by abandoning his thoughts of moral righteousness. This conflicts with the moral issue of relying upon other's morals, rather than one's own conscience.

When you know that everyone wants you to do something and their will is pushing yours, even if you feel like what they want done isn't what you believe should be done. This is the problem that George Orwell faced, he was pushed by a crowd to kill the the elephant even though he felt it was wrong.  The essay shows through the language that Orwell uses that his pride pushed him to kill the elephant and the deep regret he feels afterwards.

A teenage boy, barely over the age of eighteen, walked into a school in a small town in Pakistan. He stepped in and a few short seconds later, he blew himself up, killing the innocent children and teachers around him. Nothing but rubble was left of the school. Families were left to search frantically for their beloved children among unrecognizable corpses. This is a headline that I’ve seen on TV back home in Pakistan more times than I can count.

While reading the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell the main character was victim of peer pressure due to the fact that he had no intention of shooting the elephant, however, the villagers had another agenda on their mind which was killing the elephant to add on Orwell did not want to look weak especially because the Burmese villagers did not have faith in Orwell and they showed this by mocking Orwell and laughing in his face. Orwell wanted to maintain or improve his image to impress the Burmese villagers so that they would respect him more. An example that backs up my point is stated in paragraph five which says “I had no intention of shooting the elephant – I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary and it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you.”pg136. Although, Orwell killed the elephant at the end of the story he felt better about the situation because he had gained more respect from the Burmese Villagers. To add on, another story that is similar to “Shooting an Elephant” is a personal story of how I was asked to do a task that was against my beliefs just like Orwell.

Since the dawn of time humans have had a difficult time making the right decisions. Often times humans would contemplate things for hours wondering if they will make the correct choice. It haunts them when they need to make a difficult decision because they never know if it is the best choice. Human ideals, morals and values often come into conflict with each other, and these are when decisions are the hardest to make.

In 1936, George Orwell published his short story ‘Shooting an elephant’ in an English magazine. Since then, it has been republished dozens of times and holds a place as a definitive anti-colonial piece of literature, in an era where the British Empire was at its peak and covered almost 1/3 of the Earth’s surface. George Orwell believed that “…imperialism was an evil thing...” and uses much themes, symbolism and irony to convey his strong anti-colonialist feelings.