George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

“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.

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

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

From the very beginning of “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell struggles with his role as a British police officer in Burma and knows that he is “hated by large numbers of people” because of the colonialization by the British. He does not agree with imperialism and saw it as “an evil thing” but the native people do not know his internal feelings and struggles. He “was an obvious target” by the Burmese people and fights with his conscience and self-image throughout the story. Orwell is torn between his morals and killing a loose, tame elephant after it killed a villager. He knows that killing the elephant is the wrong thing to do even though it is legal because it had killed someone.

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, is an interesting essay that shows the audience the effect of insecurity and peer pressure. The essay starts off with setting up what exactly Orwell is dealing with in Moulmein. While he holds symbolic authority and military supremacy and is also “theoretically —and secretly” on their side by being opposed to the oppressive British empire he serves, He is an outsider, and he is still powerless to stop their insults and abuse he receives from oppressed Burmese. When an elephant causes mayhem around the town Orwell takes charge of trying to find it. When the creatures is seen nearby, Orwell asks for a gun. This leads for him a mistake he unintentionally made. He was not planning on to shooting the elephant,

In his essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell recounts a moment, in which he is forced to shoot a rampaging elephant out of the fear of looking a fool. Orwell relays that he is an Englishmen in a crowd of “natives” who detest his existence. Furthermore, he works as a police officer who is able to view the despotic and corrupt actions of the empire. Information is released that a crazed elephant had gotten loose and was wreaking havoc on the bazaars and bamboo huts in town. As a result, Orwell sends for a rifle and follows the elephant’s trails with little intent to shoot.

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

In George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant, Orwell was faced with the decision of acting out of fear of what others would think of him. After a loose elephant went savage and killed a man, all the Burmese people in the village thought of Orwell as the strong white man who could get away with anything and everything. Even though he personally did not feel it was right to shoot the beast, he did because all the Burmese watching were expecting him to. Orwell went against his beliefs to satisfy the wants of a community that did not get that much fun.

Orwell abandons his morals and kills the elephant to garner the approval of the Burmans. He feels compelled to shoot the animal because the Burmans "did not like me, but with the magical rifle in

Have you ever been pressured into doing something you didn’t want to, but felt like you had no other option? The narrator in Orwell's, “Shooting an Elephant” had a very similar experience. He was pressed by the Burmese into committing a senseless killing that he did not deem necessary. This transformation of the main characters mentality and morals gives the audience a terrific example of characterization, which would not be possible without the effective use of point of view in Orwell's story.

Everyone, at one or time, has succumbed to the pressure of doing something against his or her wishes. In George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell recounts his earlier years as a sub-divisional officer in British-occupied Burma. With their bitter hatred for the white men, the native Burmese would taunt and harass them. Although Orwell sympathizes with the Burmese and against the British, their constant jeering led made him hate his job even more. The crux of this story occurs when Orwell receives a phone call to “do something about” a rampaging elephant that has damaged property, killed a cow, and murdered a man. With a crowd of two thousand natives following him as he, armed with an elephant rifle, watches the elephant, he

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

Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant is a narrative essay that captures his time as a police officer for the British Raj in colonial Burma. When an Elephant escapes its inclosure to kill and skin a ‘coolie’ Orwell is expected to do something about the matter. Armed with a gun, he finds the elephant enjoying himself in a field. Upon discovering the peaceful creature he rethinks his actions, deciding not to shoot the beast. However, a crowd of thousands has formed to watch the

The first and primary reason for George Orwell shooting the elephant is simply Orwell being afraid. He was originally not intending to shoot the elephant; he merely brought the rifle for his own protection. “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. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder

Orwell position in power is influencing his empathetic feelings.Orwell is hiding the fact that he understands the Burmese people pain. He unable to be true to himself because of his position as a police officer. In “Shooting An Elephant” Orwell is hindering the facts that he feels for the elephant and doesn't want to kill it. Orwell claims “ I had no intention of shooting the elephant i merely sent the riffle to protect myself” Orwell know that the people wants him to shot the elephant and he has to make a tough decision. being in a the position he is orwell felt like he has to be heartless and not show people his emotional side. He felt like this is what people expected of him, and he has to handle serious situations without revealing his