Shooting An Elephant

George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’ (Orwel, 1936) represents a number of strangers being involved in a combined encounter. The situation throughout the essay represents the unjust British occupation of Burma, the hatred towards him as a British officer and the elephant symbolising the British. The part of the text chosen clearly exemplifies how a forced duty can lead to hatred. The text chosen displays that he is forced to encounter the Burmese people yet they despise him. Although the encounter with the Burmese improves with the arrival of the elephant, Orwell still has a sense of isolation. Throughout the text Orwell questions the presence of the British in the East exploring that the encounter with the Burmese should not have took place.

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

The story of Shooting an Elephant is a short story that shows the internal struggle of a man who tries to figure out for himself if he values self respect more or others respect more. The main character is a European who works for the sub-divisional police in South East Asia. He is stationed in Burma where, even though he hates the people, he hopes the Burmese win the war. Hatred for the Burmese people is fueled by their mocking him and treatment towards him with absolutely no respect and little regard. In addition, even though the man shoots the elephant, he earlier stated that he had absolutely no resolve in him to shoot the elephant. His decision to not kill the elephant comes crumbling down when he realizes the Burmese will take notice of him if he shoots the elephant. Why would he care about what the Burmese thought of him if they hated him anyway? This is because his hatred for the Burmese is little in comparison to how much he wishes for respect and recognition. The

“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell, first published in the journal New Writing in 1936. In this essay, the author tells his own story about when he was working as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Police in Burma.

“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.

Most people believe that others have authority and control over their own actions. However, contrary to belief, authority controls people's actions. Peer pressure can have an effect on the decisions people make. In this short story, the policeman (the protagonist) is hated by the majority of people in the city of Moulmein. He is hated because he is secretly on the Burmese people’s side instead of the British. Along with conflict of the British and Burmese people, an elephant escapes and causes chaos throughout the city. It is killing people and destroying buildings. The policeman decides to step in and help, but he is faced with the peer pressure of the crowd to kill an elephant that he has no intention in killing. The protagonist is faced with lying to other people and regret for his actions. In, “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell explains how the policeman struggles between the decisions of shooting an elephant to please the authoritarian crowd that can treat him better and accept him.

The story “Shooting an Elephant” is told by an ongoing and first person narrator, who was committed to events he was faced with and obtained insight and wisdom from these adventures even though he struggled internally and externally.

Throughout the story, he made it known that he didn’t want to shoot the elephant, and his attitude never changed from that. He also seemed to be depressed in the story because he felt pressure to do what he didn’t want to. He continues to be depressed because he followed through with what the crown wanted him to do. The author also was worried in the middle of the story because he didn’t want the crowd to put him down if he decided not to kill the elephant. The entire tone of the story was overall gloomy, and there wasn’t any happiness except for when the crowd’s wants were

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.

The story “Shooting an Elephant” was written by George Orwell. The story consists of George Orwell wanted to do the right thing, the only problem was that he didn’t what is was. Orwell could of on his own, kill the elephant because the weapon made him powerful or his other option was killing the elephant under pressure. He clearly was confused on what was best, many have their own way of seeing things but Orwell saw things as under pressure.

The narrator in “Shooting an Elephant,” has a conflict of whether to listen to his own conscious and not shoot the elephant, or listen to the native Burmese and go ahead and execute it. It is a difficult decision to make because as humans we strive for acceptance, but we also want to adhere to our own moral standards. When we are considered an outsider in society, we regrettably jeopardize our own beliefs. When the narrator had finally built up the courage to shoot, he had not heard the shot itself but the “devilish road of glee that went up from the crowd.” He continuously fires with his powerless rifle as he kills the innocent life of the elephant. As he watches the beast fall to the ground, the regret builds up within. The crowd goes wild with encouragement and the narrator realizes what he has done and the power of guilt emerges. He says, “In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away.” When we do something we feel uncomfortable with, those that cheers us on makes us feel noble, but the regret itself destroys our

From the start the author, George Orwell, initiates that the power in Burma is not well organized and not at all safe. Orwell holds a high position of authority and superiority, but still fails to halt the abuse and taunting he receives from the subjugate Burmen. The purpose of Orwell writing the autobiographical essay was to demonstrate the overpowering imperial rule the British enforced as well as to communicate why imperialism is negative to both the oppressor and the oppressed as it obtains freedom. Orwell conveys how persuasion can influence actions since he was basically swayed into killing the elephant. Orwell applies his experience of shooting an elephant as a metaphor for his background with the practice of politically controlling another territory, or imperialism.

Conformity often occurs in situations when one either lacks guidance or is pressured. In “Shooting An Elephant” by George Orwell, there is a primary issue of an elephant being on the loose in which the officer should be responsible for. The Burmese people solely believe that the officer is accountable as his position correlates with an oppressor. The pressure generated by the Burmese people affects the officer internally to conform to the crowd’s desire purely because he does not want to be a laughing stock. It is clear that most of the whites also faced this continuous issue of prejudice in the East, despite what job position in society they possessed. The pressure imposed furthermore demonstrates the theme of oppression considering how an

In “Shooting an Elephant” author George Orwell tells his story of the time that he single handily killed an elephant. The story starts with Orwell telling us how he was a petty anti-imperialist. He voices that he was a simple European police officer who had been hated by the Burman people. He tells of how the Burman people would get joy from the smallest suffering of a European. How he had been tripped on a football field and how it aggravated him to suffer such harsh judgement from the very people he sympathized for.

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.