Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

One day, an elephant broke free from it’s chains and in a fit of “must” began ravaging the bazaar. The Burmese were without weapons, so they had little defense against the beast. Thus, Orwell set out to find it with a rifle much too small to any damage. It was not until, the elephant killed a man that Orwell sent for an elephant rifle. However, upon seeing the elephant rifle the natives went into a frenzy, excited to see the beast killed, but more excited for the meat. The narrator had no intention of shooting the elephant, for once he found it, it was peacefully eating grass, its “must” already wearing off. In the moment, Orwell knew he should not shoot the animal, it was a source of income for someone, an expensive piece of machinery. However, with the crowd of two thousand standing behind him, this choice was far from easy. It is here where the paradox of imperialism begins. Despite Orwell being the one with the rifle and technically being in charge, he feels powerless against the natives. It was in that moment that the author realizes when a man “becomes a tyrant, it is his own freedom that he destroys.” Orwell eventually chose to slay the elephant with multiple gunshots, much to the natives pleasure. To wrap up the story, Orwell explains that he simply shot the elephant to avoid looking a

He says “I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd — seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.” Through the use of metaphors he says that although he should be the person in power, in reality he is the one being controlled by the Burmese people. Moments later he says, “ I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.” By shooting the elephant against his own will in order to please those he should have control over, Orwell displays to us how harsh imperialism can be. He uses the words dreadful and tortured to describe how he feels about his actions. With all things considered, Orwell was able to adequately inform us of the negative effects that imperialism imposes on the oppressor.

In George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell choice of shooting the elephant was made due to internal pressure. The British Officer is station at Lower Burma. He hates his duty and despises the British Empire; the Officer secretly likes the Burmese. The Burmese shouted at the Officer to shoot the elephant when they saw him holding the “magical rifle,” but his moral conscience made him not want to shoot the elephant. When the Officer notice thousandths of Burmese staring at him, he felt like he must “do what the natives expect of him,“ because if he doesn’t shoot the elephant “the crowd would laugh” at him.

2. In paragraphs 3-5 Orwell is shown as searching for the elephant and discovering all the damage that the elephant has caused while on its rampage, and we see orwell eventually “sent an orderly to a friends house to borrow an elephant rifle”(page 2). After he receives this gun he is shown as socially pressured because all the burmese people expect him to “shoot the elephant” (page 3), but he doesn’t want to shoot the elephant himself. These details intensify the conflict because he originally got the rifle to defend himself, but now since all the burmese people already expect him to shoot the elephant he can’t really back down since he would be laughed at and mocked if he did. Orwell has to decide

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.

At this point, Orwell, “...had paralyzes him without knocking him down.”(5) The British army was one of the most powerful armies in the world at that time. The Burmese began to take command over their freedom. They have wounded the British army but have not penetrated them enough yet to end them. After the first bullet has entered, the crowd displayed a “devilish roar of glee”(5). This is a pure example of the Burmese’s feelings toward the British being on their land overruling them. Orwell also noted that if he were to miscalculate his aim and miss the elephant the crowd would trample, reducing him to his grinning corps. All gruesome descriptions that represent the fight that the Burmese are willing to endure for their independence.

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

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

Grace Wilson Professor Combs ENC-15377 30 September 2016 Orwell’s dilemma “Don’t make a permanent decision for your temporary emotion.” This quote made by an anonymous source relates to the moral of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. In the story, Orwell was faced with a tough decision that had to be made quickly.

Orwell was trying to satisfy the crowd by giving them what they wanted to see. He went to get the rifle to defend himself but it led to him killing the elephant. He had no intention of shooting the elephant but he realizes that’s what he had to do when the crowd follows him. The Burmese people were excited about this because they would be able to get meat to eat. He let his conscious eat up the inside of him and chose the wrong path.

If he did not shoot the elephant, it would have been suicide for him. The two thousand people that were behind Orwell were yelling and screaming at him to shoot the elephant, and he had nowhere to run. Orwell had no choice but to shoot that elephant, or else Orwell himself would have been killed from the mob that was behind him. One person already died in this story, and, being a man of the law, George Orwell did not

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.

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

The incident that took place was when a domesticated elephant escaped from its chains, and was causing harm to the villagers and their property. The “mahout” – a caretaker of the elephant went searching towards a different route which happened to be 12 hours away; the only solution in stopping this berserk elephant was by shooting it. George Orwell, the police officer who works in Moulmein, Burma was conflicted upon shooting or not shooting at the elephant. Orwell felt pressured by the villagers when confronting the elephant. As he walked towards the field, a large sum of the village was following close by. The villagers felt a wave of excitement as they saw the gun in Orwell’s hand; to witness the killing of the elephant was seen as a joyous celebration in their eyes. The villager’s excitement in witnessing the

After reading “Shooting an Elephant,” I think Orwell was a person misguided to his future and to his choices. Rather than attend to the university, Orwell join the Imperial police in neighboring Burma. Where he later realized and explained he is opposed to the British Colonial Project in Burma. He made up his mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner he get off that job the better. Yet, something happened that an elephant was destroying the bazaar. Feeling forced to do some decent police, Orwell grab a old raffle to see what's happening. At this point, he’s doesn't have any intention to shoot the elephant. When he arrives to the town the mess the elephant has made and it has killed a person. After Orwell saw the dead man, he borrow