Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell Analysis

The white man’s burden is an idea that the white men have a job to take care of the uncivilized beings and develop them to be a more socially endowed race. Their belief that they are superior to the natives is where this is rooted. This idea excused racism and portrayed it as more of a positive element in our society, rather than the destructive mechanism that it actually is. It also caused white men to truly believe that they are better than any other race out there. In “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, the narrator’s brain is subconsciously imbedded with this notion. He claims to be opposed to imperialism and everything about it while also hating his job and the people associated with it. These two things cannot go hand in hand.

In the story “How to Shoot an Elephant” by George Orwell, an elephant escapes and destroys parts of the village in Burma while the owner of was away. The story takes place in Burma in 1886. This is when the Britain is trying to colonize India. The main character, which is a police officer in Burma who is against the British control, negotiates with his ethical decision to shoot the elephant instead of being viewed as an embarrassment. The author uses rhetorical devices such as metaphors and simile throughout his story to show a textured image of the events that had taken place.

“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.

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

It is often said that people try to look for their benefits and reputation in the society, which results into “evilness”. Therefore, people start to choose easy paths to get their work done. However, people may choose the wrong path and would not recognize it because people only see their benefits. John Berger, the author of an article called “Hiroshima”, argues that evilness has increased largely that people cannot see the actual matter in the society. He shows that people know that “evil” exists. However, instead of spreading “innocence” in the society, people are spreading “evilness”. In the article “Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, he states that an elephant had gone mad and killed a man. The British officer does not want to shoot the elephant but he shot the elephant because of his reputation and his powers. Orwell argues that a people are “evil” for many centuries. However, people’s “evilness” reveal when they start to look for their benefits because of their selfishness. Berger argues that people may reveal their “evilness” under certain circumstances and Orwell would agree with Berger’s idea because he also states that people start to act selfishly when “evilness” takes over “innocence”. Orwell uses personal experience to criticize people’s intentions of “selfishness” and “evilness”, while Berger not only uses credibility to show selfishness of people but also uses emotional appeal to show people’s “evilness”.

. 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

Everyone has a moment in their lives that changes the way they think, or identifies our true views; an event that reveals a part of them that was never known before then. For example, in the essay “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, Orwell himself is working as a British police officer in Burma in the 1920’s. He does not like his job because of his hate for the oppressive nature of the British government. However, he does take the job seriously. One day, he gets a report about an elephant tearing through the town. He quickly gets his gun and rides to the scene with his horse. Once Orwell arrives, the elephant is long gone, but he sees all the damage it has caused, even killing a man in its rampage. Orwell asks for a larger gun, only to be used as a last resort against the elephant, and sets off to find the elephant. Many miles away, in a field, the elephant stands. However, it seems to have calmed down and is now eating as if nothing happened. By this point, Orwell has attracted the attention of hundreds of the natives, who have followed him in anticipation of seeing him kill the elephant. Although Orwell did not want to kill the elephant, he felt as though he had to, because of the position of power he held over the natives. He shoots the elephant, but is not content with his decision. Orwell believes that it was his position of power in the community that forced him into shooting the elephant, to avoid looking like a fool. It was through this event in his life that

The elephant is a strong and resilient species. Killing one is no easy task. The animal can only be taken down with multiple shots from one of the highest caliber rifles a man can operate singlehanded. Only a precise and well placed shots from a powerful outside force can kill such a being. For this reason, it is the perfect symbolic catalyst for George Orwell in his essay “Shooting an Elephant”.

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.

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

What is perceived as good and bad? Every person has a different standard of behavior or beliefs concerning what are and are not acceptable for them to do or morals. These morals are the base of how a person acts in a society. Morality plays a huge role in decision-making; people should never disregard their ethical and moral beliefs solely to justify societal expectations. Morals are what make an individual. We should not have to do something just because society says it is the right thing to do because we believe in actions and activities being right and wrong.

In his narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell uses his story as a metaphor, to describe the reasons for the downfall of imperialism, and the British Empire. Orwell, uses symbolization in the essay to depict the status, and tyranny of the British Empire during the 1900’s. Orwell, contemplates his ideas and thoughts to the reader, and depicts that his role as a tyrant is to live up to the expectations of the Burmese, and to bury his thoughts to fulfill the role of a white man in the East. This fact is vividly represented in one of the sayings by Orwell at the end of the essay: “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool” (Orwell 5). Although, the essay is a narrative, if he

The influence of peer pressure negatively affects individuals. In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell reflects on his experience in Moulmein where he faces pressure from the Burmese to shoot an elephant. He details the negative impact peer pressure has on individuals. In his writing, Orwell describes the pressure he feels to uphold his expectations, fear and justification. Peer pressure results in individuals to overlook their moral ethics.

Story is about a Burma village where an elephant got loose and wreaked havoc on the town and kills a villager (a man). George Orwell is the sheriff and ultimately makes the choice to kill the elephant.

British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, based on Orwell’s experience as an imperial officer in Burma. The shooting an elephant show the themes of the principle, the performance, and the colonialism of Orwell in the story. First, Orwell’s service in the British Empire places his reasoned principles and his basic intuitions in constant conflict. He recognizes that the empire is tyrannical and abusive, yet he is unable to overcome his visceral contempt for the local villagers who mistreat him. When the elephant appears, Orwell could have followed his more humane or ethical impulses and chosen to spare the elephant, but Orwell ends up compromising his humane impulses and killing the elephant because he fears humiliation from the Burmese.