Shooting An Elephant Essay

As a European white man in the British colony of India, George Orwell, in his narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, describes one of his most memorable events while living in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma. Orwell’s purpose is to share the absolute horror of living in imperialism. He adopts a tense tone throughout his essay by using vivid description and gruesome imagery in order to relate the incident with the elephant to what it is like to live in imperialism.

EXTRA: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 really is. In addition it shows that imperialism at times takes away the freedom of not only the oppressed but the oppressor as

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

“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.

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.

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 the article "Shooting an Elephants" by George Orwell the author's story is very captivating and descriptive. “I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” He does not hold back the details as if he remembers them. Orwell originally did not want to shoot the elephant but feared what his peers would say, his peers being the thousand yellow faces that stood behind him if he didn't complete his job. Unfortunately, he was not in fear of his life but his duty and job called for him to against his morals and shoots the elephant. The locals had it out for him anyways, not killing elephant would have added fire to the flame of the dislike they would have for the policeman. The Burmese people play a huge role, badgering

George Orwell’s 1930 short story “Shooting an Elephant,” demonstrates the total dangers of the unlimited authority a state has and the astounding presentment of “future dystopia”. In the story, Orwell finds himself to be in an intricate situation that involves an elephant. Not only does the fate of the elephant’s life lie in Orwell’s hands, he has an audience of people behind him cheering him on, making his decision much more difficult to make. Due to the vast crowd surrounding his thoughts, Orwell kills the elephant in the end, not wanting to disappoint the people of Burma. Orwell captures the hearts of readers by revealing the struggles he has while dealing with the burden of his own beliefs and morals.

Elizabeth Lozano English 101 Mrs. 13 November 2014 The Individual and Society There are two readings in which can be seen implying the relationship between the individual and society, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, by Gloria Anzaldua and “Shooting an Elephant”, by George Orwell. These readings speak of an incident that arises within a culture and what they had to face in order to be accepted by society. For instance, Gloria Anzaldua expresses the social (and cultural) stresses that Latin immigrants have to face when being raised in the United States. On the other hand, George Orwell describes the effects and downfall of imperialism while creating a story line of the pressure that society causes in order for an individual to do what is

Through this grim tone, Orwell explains his encounter with a “must” elephant that has killed a man, and because of his crime, the Burmese locals request Orwell to shoot and kill the elephant. Describing the gruesome scene,

Every author puts a great deal of effort in making their work successful, meaningful and symbolic however, some authors do an excellent job in achieving this goal and on the contrary some might be unsuccessful to achieve the goal. In the essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, the author George Orwell has worked extremely hard to express and relate the meaning of the symbols to the story. The protagonist character George Orwell is the British imperial police officer in Burma and is hated by Burmese people because he is a part of the British Empire, the oppressor of the Burma. Orwell does show sympathy over native people of Burma but he cannot do anything to change the minds of the British Empire. After finding an elephant that was out of control however

He was trying to impress these natives with the only opportunity he had to be impressive, he was the star of the show with the rifle in his hand. Killing the elephant was a choice of the people, the natives, which Orwell had let influence

He describes the day of the shooting as , “the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me”. The pressure felt by the British police officer from the inexorable crowd “growing every minute” leads to his fatal shooting of the helpless elephant. He allays the idea of massacring this animal. As Orwell loads up the elephant rifle and aims it at the beast, the crowd “grew very still, and a deep, low happy sigh… breathed from innumerable throats.” The pull of the rifle’s trigger satisfies the crowd, and keeps him from the ignonimous judgement from the crowd.

In “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell, being a police officer, is going through some tough times. The reason being was because many of the people in the area, in which he resided, hated Europeans. In the story, Orwell is told that an elephant has gone on a rampage and is asked to deal with the situation. The elephant’s rampage had come to an end and it was peacefully eating grass “He took not the slightest notice of the crowd’s approach. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth” (George Orwell, 142). He wanted to leave the elephant be, because he then felt the obligation of having to shoot the elephant because that was what he was expected to do. “For it is the condition of