George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Analysis

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, much like 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 says that, 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.

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

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.

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

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.

“To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing – no, that was impossible” (137). Orwell felt that the Burmese would laugh at him and throughout his whole life; every white men’s life would be one long struggle not to be laughed at (137). During his time in Burma, Orwell had to deal with many of the locals being mean to him and getting laughed at for it. He knew if he did not shoot the elephant, it would give the people an opportunity harass him even more. Shooting the elephant gave him a chance to show the people that he was not the fool they all made him out to be.

The essay “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell is about a particular day the narrator was living in British occupied Burma. The author tells about an event that still bothers him, in which he had a choice in whether or not to shoot and kill an elephant. The episode seems to still haunt him years later. The author seemed to write the essay in part to help himself cope with the act that he had committed. By his own admission, the narrator divulges that he does not share the same beliefs as the powerful government that he represents.

Unanticipated choices one is forced to make can have long-lasting effects.{2} In "Shooting an Elephant," by George Orwell, the author recounts an event from his life when he was about twenty years old during which he had to choose the lesser of two evils. Many years later, the episode seems to still haunt him. The story takes place at some time during the five unhappy years Orwell spends as a British police officer in Burma. He detests his situation in life, and when he is faced with a moral dilemma, a valuable work animal has to die to save his pride.{3}

K.Kapler 9-2-17 English 1A Lourie,Iven In the comparison of the story, “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, states about how he deals with being a ‘sub-division police officer’ (133). In a relative comparison with my last job as an Ice Cream Attendant. And how it relates by the experience we’ve both go through our daily lives. While we work at our jobs, we are given several duties to ensure that the people are completely happy and satisfied.

It is often said that people try to look for their benefits and reputation in the society, which results into “evilness”. Therefore, people start to choose easy paths to get their work done. However, people may choose the wrong path and would not recognize it because people only see their benefits. John Berger, the author of an article called “Hiroshima”, argues that evilness has increased largely that people cannot see the actual matter in the society. He shows that people know that “evil” exists. However, instead of spreading “innocence” in the society, people are spreading “evilness”. In the article “Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, he states that an elephant had gone mad and killed a man. The British officer does not want to shoot the elephant but he shot the elephant because of his reputation and his powers. Orwell argues that a people are “evil” for many centuries. However, people’s “evilness” reveal when they start to look for their benefits because of their selfishness. Berger argues that people may reveal their “evilness” under certain circumstances and Orwell would agree with Berger’s idea because he also states that people start to act selfishly when “evilness” takes over “innocence”. Orwell uses personal experience to criticize people’s intentions of “selfishness” and “evilness”, while Berger not only uses credibility to show selfishness of people but also uses emotional appeal to show people’s “evilness”.

In George Orwell’s Shooting An Elephant, he compromises his belief on British imperialism and even his belief on shooting the elephant. It is implied in the essay that Orwell thinks that British imperialism is bad, and he compromises this belief by being a police officer for the advantage of the British in the country of Burma, now known as Myanmar. Likewise, he compromises his belief on what he should do about the elephant, and ultimately decides that he has to shoot it. “Has to shoot it.” I say this because the Burmese people do not like Orwell, and he wants to gain their trust and friendship, and get rid of the hate against him.

: George Orwell explains in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” that imperialism influences the people within its system, even if they are aware of its flaws, to leave behind their morals despite their intents.

I was a class monitor back to my middle and high school. The job of a class monitor is to make sure that everything within the class goes well when the teacher is absent, such as keeping the class quiet during self-study, and looking for anyone who is cheating on a test. It’s not hard to imagine that such a job risks a high possibility of having conflicts with both my classmates and teachers. If either side think I am favoring the other, it’s readily for me to be criticized for not being fair or responsible enough. So I was facing a problem of who should I lay my loyalty to.

Critical decisions lead to an internal conflict when made under pressure. George Orwell writes of such an experience in the short story “Shooting an Elephant”, where the main character must choose between what he knows is right, and the pressure to do what is wrong. (Nadell et al., 2011- Pg. 183 -188) An un-named police officer of European decent in Moulmein, Lower Burma, gradually realizes he will have to choose between shooting an elephant and facing humiliation from the local Burmese. (Nadell et al., 2011- Pg. 183 -188) His choice to give in to the pressure of the native Burmese was wrong, but was it justified? Life-altering decisions should never be made without weighing the consequences.