George Orwell's Automotive Reasoning

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

Upon seeing the rifle, a huge crowd started to follow him. He had no intention to kill the elephant. However, the crowd was expecting him to shoot it. They did not want to kill it because it had destroyed the bazaar, but rather to enjoy the fun and to get the elephant meat. The crowd’s expectation leaves Orwell no choice but to shoot the elephant. He points out that he had to shoot it to “impress the ‘natives’” (7). If he had not done it, the crowd would have laugh at him, and it would hurt his pride as a white man living in the East. In the end, he decided to trigger the gun and shot the elephant.

As Orwell glanced at the growing crowd, he instantly perceived the common desires of the people “They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all” (3).These people wanted revenge for the death of the innocent man, the meat its carcass would provide, and the amusement of witnessing the shootings “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly” (3). Because of these collective expectations, Orwell had to appear determined, authoritative, and decisive through shooting the elephant or else his reputation and the rest of the British colonizers’ reputation would be

Throughout the process of shooting the elephant, Orwell’s attitude drastically changes as he pulls the trigger and the massive beast plunges to the ground. Orwell says “When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick-one never does when a shot goes home” (Orwell 11). This mindset tells the reader, as Orwell went to pull the trigger his mind went blank because he knew he was going to be successful at killing the elephant even though that was the last thing he wanted to do. Then the devilish roar of the elephant with glee of the crowd brought him back to real time and shows, how the cruelty brought happiness to the crowd. After the bullets hit the elephant, the tortured breathing continued to slowly annoy Orwell, as he reminded himself of why he did it.

In "Shooting an Elephant" George Orwell struggles with his conscience by having second thoughts on the actions he takes. “Being a sub-divisional police officer of the town” (2-3) Orwell struggles with feeling “anti-European”, being “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” (15-16). And of course the shooting of the Elephant that he is not in favor of. “In a job that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters” (17-18) He felt a “sense of guilt” (20) and hatred for his job. Moreover, Orwell talks about how the “Burman tripped him up on the football field and the crowd yelled with laughter” (6-7). But yet he is still “all for the Burmese” (15-16). At last The shooting of the Elephant was something Orwell didn’t

To sum up the reasoning behind George Orwell shooting the elephant, one must conclude, that there had been put great pressure on his shoulders. He had two ways to go, both with major problems. Some might say he chose the right thing, while others will be opposed, but one thing is right. He did it for the better of

The reader sees a glimpse of Orwell's moral conscious when he displays his feelings of unrest at his unethical decision. He writes, "It seemed dreadful to see the great beast lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die"(526). The elephant suffers a prolonged, agonizing death because Orwell did not have a hunter's knowledge of how to kill the elephant; thus his shot penetrated the elephant in the wrong spot. As a result, the guilt grows and he "could not stand it any longer"(527) and left the site. Orwell realizes that he committed an atrocity. However he tries to defend his action. It seems that Orwell is trying to make himself feel better by justifying his wrongdoing. He

This essay describes the experience of an English narrator named Orwell, who was ordered to shoot an aggressive elephant while he was working as a policeman in Burma. As a consequence, the locals expected him to do the job (shooting the elephant), thus he did the job to please the people, but he wasn’t pleasing himself. Orwell’s pain increased by the elephant’s slow and painful death. He had a sense of guilt when he mentions seeing the elephant laying in the ground “powerless to move and yet powerless to die”. In fact, he made himself believe that he was right and it was legal to kill the elephant, by thinking to justify what he had done, stating “legally I did the right thing, a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it”. On the contrary, Orwell knew that the elephant could have been saved without unnecessary harm, but he chose the latter. In my opinion, I’ve liked other essays more than Orwell’s essay because this one was very hard to read, thinking that it was hard to see an elephant die slowly and killing

Orwell is a very descriptive writer who emphasizes a different moral in every essay. He is not simply describing an elephant shooting or a hanging; he is trying to make readers listen to his messages. One of the messages that Orwell wants his readers to understand is the power that role playing has on the human mind. Orwell demonstrates this theme quite easily in both essays. Before killing the elephant, Orwell states, “I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle. A sahib has got to act like a sahib…”(Orwell: Shooting an Elephant). This statement illustrates how people with power must live up to their expectations to keep that power. He knows he has the power to kill the animal, so he makes himself fit the role of a killer. Power can affect the way people act. A modern day example of this is shown when gang members act on thoughts of the group to gain acceptance by other members. The acceptance gives them power and this is a universal idea that Orwell focuses on. Orwell also stresses power to describe human nature. Orwell likes to use this in both essays because it explains the inconsistency that humans have when power takes over. This is one of Orwell’s morals he stresses to his audience to make them realize the poor decisions people make when in power.

Collectively, people are weak. Humans constantly follow what is considered to be a dominant force or trend. No individual can survive separate from the group; therefore, no one strays from what is considered popular. People are biologically programmed to have this stick-with-the-herd mindset. This attribute is encoded into all humans and aids them in survival, which is why people try not to deviate from the group.

In the short, Orwell is faced with the task of killing an elephant that is bringing fear to the town. He feels that killing the elephant is impossible and unwarranted because it is so big. “I was not squeamish about killing animals, But I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to. Somehow it always seems worse to kill a large animal,” (Orwell 4). Elephants are working animals used for rigorous jobs such as lifting and transporting materials. As Eric Arthur critiques, “The elephant therefore has something analogous to a social station—he is a “worker”—and resembles, in his servant-to-master relation the native Burmese, who have been enrolled without veto into the service of the British Empire,” (Arthur 253). As the elephant is symbolic for a worker, Orwell’s treatment towards the elephant can be comparable to his treatment towards the Burmese

In George Orwell’s short story, “Shooting an Elephant”, it follows a man that is being bombarded by the pressure of the situation that has been presented upon him. In 1936 Moulmein, Burma, a man is sent there as a sub-divisional policeman to be the officer of the town, but he being the only man of European decent in a town full of “yellow faces”, it isn’t surprising that he is being picked on by them. As we dive into the story, we can feel the slow burn of hatred in Orwell’s tone as the character describes the people he works for and for the people he works with. One day the unnamed man would be confronted by the issue of an elephant on the loose going around the town destroying people’s homes, livestock, and vegetation and it is asked of him

In George Orwell's essay "Shooting An Elephant," Orwell works as a sub divisional police officer in the town of Moulmein. One morning Orwell receives a phone call from the sub inspector at a police station from the other end of the town telling him a tame elephant has escaped and is causing chaos. Orwell begins his short journey towards the elephant bringing a gun with him, expecting the noise to scare it away. Once he arrived at the destination, he would find the elephant to spook it. Without knowing a huge crowd of townspeople would follow behind him, his decision to simply scare the elephant off changed. Even though the beast seemed harmless, Orwell decided to shoot the elephant, hoping the townspeople would

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

Orwell plans to return when he finds a corpse of an Indian trampled to death. With thousands at his heels, Orwell finds the elephant grassing peacefully; he decides not to shoot it. In fact, Orwell never entertains the idea of shooting the elephant. However, he finds himself backed into a corner, and that he has no other choice but to live up to the expectations of the mass, either that or be ridiculed, but that is not an option since the British people have this notion that they must never look afraid in front of natives. Orwell realizes in this moment that by colonizing other countries, the colonizers places themselves in a position that they cannot escape. He has to be the one that obeys the people, and as he goes against his own will and shoots the elephant, he acknowledges his place in the imperialism, which is a machine that ends up destroying them all in one way or another. The level of formality in this essay is slightly informal. The language is mostly unmarked; Orwell manages to construct grammatically correct sentences and does not bring a certain attention on the style of writing, with the exceptions of curse words and offensive descriptions of the Burmese people such as yellow faces and coolie. The tone of the essay is very sarcastic at times. A noticeable thing in the essay is the male pronouns used for the elephant, giving the elephant a humane essence. This is further illustrated by his deeply sympathetic description of the dying elephant, as opposed to how briefly he mentions the dead Indian. This could say something about his own thinly veiled racism that he does not necessarily practice, but is still prominent since he is a white male actively participating in continuing the British