George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

He repeats over and again that he did not want to shoot the elephant. He confesses, “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to.” Orwell gives emotional reasons for being against the idea of shooting the animal and not rational. He generalizes all elephants to have a “preoccupied grandmotherly air” and compares the elephant to a cow. The writer uses the simile, “They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.” to explain the pressure he had from the crowd watching him. Orwell remarks that regardless of his decision to shoot the elephant, he cannot change the thinking of the public about him. Orwell was moved by the hefty crowd that followed him. He was left with no choice other than to shoot the elephant because that was what the crowd expected of him and this scene signifies the failure of imperialism which is the writer’s overall theme. The sentence, “I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East.” helps explain to the reader the real failure of imperialism. Orwell insists that although the white man in the East has power which is symbolized by the rifle, he is still not allowed to make use of it in accordance with his will. He is classifying imperialism as a hollow and futile way of governance. The Englishmen

“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.

The elephant, in this case, represent imperialism. Orwell, being in the middle of imperialism and the Burmese people, did not want to destroy imperialism in the first place even though he does not like the way it treated the innocent Burmese people. However, seeing the elephant destroying Burmese’s homes and lives, he finally realized what imperialism had done to the people of Burma. The Indian man who died represent the fact that Burmese people are weak against the British; they are poor and have neither strength nor “the gut to raise a riot” (1) against imperialism regardless of how much they hated it. Even though he did not kill imperialism like the way he did to the elephant, he believes that it will be destroy one day for the evil thing that they had done. As illustrated by Orwell,

involving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he can

The glorious days of the imperial giants have passed, marking the death of the infamous and grandiose era of imperialism. George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant, deals with the evils of imperialism. The unjust shooting of an elephant in Orwell's story is the central focus from which Orwell builds his argument through the two dominant characters, the elephant and its executioner. The British officer, the executioner, acts as a symbol of the imperial country, while the elephant symbolizes the victim of imperialism. Together, the solider and the elephant turns this tragic anecdote into an attack on the institution of imperialism.

Orwell uses this metaphor of an elephant’s rage and destruction of homes, theft of food shelves, and even killings as an example to the inner working of imperialism. Metaphorically, Orwell expands his argument about how imperialism is tyrannical towards to the Burmese people by comparing an elephant’s rage to the British Empire’s invasion of Burma and its destruction of the native life. Similarly, the elephant’s theft of food represents the oppressed of the British Empire’s imperialism has brought upon the Burmese people. They try to implement their aim of domination upon Burma without any care upon the Burmese way of life. This event not only makes the oppressed country become the victims of the imperialism, but it also is the foundation of Orwell’s dilemma regarding the killing of an elephant or the peer pressure he feels towards killing. In short, the use of metaphorical devices found throughout Orwell’s narrative help emphasizing the similarities of imperialism to that of an elephant ravaging through a town, illustrating the true effects it has upon the Burmese people.

“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell is a narrative essay that tells about a time that he had to kill an elephant, but he had many challenges when deciding to do so. Orwell had situations that he had to go through, and he also had to make very contemplating choices within himself. It’s almost as if the elephant’s death determined his fate. In “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell states, “ I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishmen in the East.”(page 1) This hints that Orwell will obviously come into some predicaments that will determine the state of his manhood. Orwell had several occasions where he contradicted himself and his beliefs. These contradictions involved Imperialism, the Burmese people, and killing the elephant.

Peer pressure is when someone gets encouraged to follow their peers by changing their attitude, values, or behavior to fit in with those of the influencing group or individual. Hughes and Orwell engage in the art of persuasion on the topic of peer pressure and how it can cause you to do things you may not believe in, and I find myself persuaded by their appeals because I share many of their audiences' characteristics. The main point in Salvation is to describe Hughes's experience of being saved which resulted in him being disappointed in himself and in Jesus. In addition, he lied to the church and felt guilty because of it. Being "saved" caused Hughes to lose faith in God which shows how pressure on a child who does not know what is going

In conclusion George Orwell essay “ Shooting An Elephant” expresses through his language that pride was something that pushed him to pull the trigger even though if it had been him alone he would have never pulled it.  He also showed  through his use of colour language and imagery the regret he feels for shooting the

Shooting an elephant is a true story about George Orwell as he is an Imperial policeman in lower Burma. He is called one day about an elephant that is loose, and is wreaking havoc. When he arrives he wants to scare the elephant away but eventually shoots the elephant to save face. While he is looking for the elephant he asks the villagers which way the elephant went. The villagers give conflicting reports of the elephant's whereabout. The killing of the elephant, the information provided by the villagers, and the pressure of the crowed Orwell says “I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, Irresistibly.”(323) are examples of metaphors for the tensions between the villagers and the British.

Every author puts a great deal of effort in making their work successful, meaningful and symbolic however, some authors do an excellent job in achieving this goal and on the contrary some might be unsuccessful to achieve the goal. In the essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, the author George Orwell has worked extremely hard to express and relate the meaning of the symbols to the story. The protagonist character George Orwell is the British imperial police officer in Burma and is hated by Burmese people because he is a part of the British Empire, the oppressor of the Burma. Orwell does show sympathy over native people of Burma but he cannot do anything to change the minds of the British Empire. After finding an elephant that was out of control however

George Orwell, Shooting An Elephant Shooting An Elephant is an essay written by George Orwell. In his essay Orwell is surrounded by Imperialism and is hated by almost everyone in the town of Burma. Although the Burmese despise him, he catches their attention and support when it comes down to Orwell shooting the elephant. Orwell expresses many different emotions in this imperialistic situation such as guilt, anger, and pressure. Guilt is a feeling that oppresses Orwell several times throughout Shooting An Elephant.

He recognizes that the empire is tyrannical and abusive, yet he is unable to overcome his instinctual dislike for the local villagers who mistreat him. In the same way that Orwell’s resentment of the villagers compromised his honorable objection to the British Raj, Orwell ends up compromising his humane impulses and killing the elephant because he feared humiliation. In the last paragraph of the essay, Orwell states very clearly why he felt compelled to kill the elephant and in doing so exposes the heart of imperialism: “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool. " Orwell became a puppet to the will of the Burmese by abandoning his thoughts of moral righteousness.

. By the type of language and the choice of words that the author used to write his essay, it is very likely that it was written for the British people, to make them aware of the injustice and cruelty of Imperialism in the colonies. The author’s aim is to make the reader feel disturbed and uneasy by describing in detail his negative experiences in India. This rhetorical analysis explores the success of the author in portraying the negative impact that Imperialism had on those being governed under it, but also on the impact on those in power. The way Orwell used the words for describing the scene of shooting the elephant, his aim was to get the reader’s mind to understand the injustice of Britain’s rule over the natives. While Shooting an

Orwell begins the story by claiming his perspective on British Imperialism. He says that it is evil and he is fully against the oppressors. Though he is actually a British officer himself he feels hatred and guilt towards himself, his empire, and the Burma people. Talking about his thoughts and feelings toward Imperialism gives deeper meaning to the rest of the story as it highlights why he dislikes it so much. He already establishes the fact that his character is weak since he lets the Burma people laugh at him and play him for a fool. The build up of finding the elephant is a metaphor in itself showcasing the destructive power of imperialism. Orwell uses other metaphors when he compares himself to being a magician about to perform a trick, or the lead actor in a piece, an absurd puppet or a posing dummy, holding the “magic rifle”. I like to think of this story as a lesson to learn from. This story clearly states that people will do anything to avoid being embarrassed. We should be open to other people's opinions but follow our instincts and not let others make decisions for us. This story is also teaching us to look at the pros and cons of a situation very carefully. As I was reading this I realized this is a very deep truth to rationalization and the impact that peer pressure has on your decision making process. No matter who you are or what you do, every single human on planet Earth cares what people think especially when it's thousands and they have the power to make