Shooting An Elephants

“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.

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.

“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.

In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell is a British police officer in Burma. One day when an elephant ravaged through a small village, Orwell was forced to shoot the elephant against his free will because of the pressure of “two thousand at the least” (Orwell 1101) Burmans who expected him to shoot the elephant. When he first heard of the elephant he had “no intention of shooting the elephant,” (Orwell 1101) but when the pressure of his surroundings acted on him, he found no other

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

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

What is ethical and what is purely malevolent varies on the way our own conscious views them. In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, an officer subsists within an imperialistic community in Burma, India, in which the native Burmese express tremendous aversions towards him. When he is given a duty to shoot an elephant that killed a Burmese man, this is his chance for triumph. He takes his rifle, a weak and powerless weapon, to use against a massive vigorous being. It is his goal to restore the town and preserve authority; however, his own thoughts may conflict within the nation when maintaining order. The narrator must choose between his own beliefs, or the pressure of the Burmese surrounding him. The significance of the narrative shows that our own moral conscious is what helps us distinguish from our own principles. Occasionally, when we

Orwell states, “At the age I was not squeamish about killing animals, but I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to.” (Orwell, 4). This passage from the story is indicating that he does not want to kill the elephant at all. Orwell described the elephant as a “huge and costly piece of machinery” (3) and felt that it shooting it would be unnecessary. However, in the end, Orwell shoots the elephant because he wants to gain respect of the Burmese people , as well as to fit in and not “to be laughed at” (4). Orwell feels the pressure of “the watchful yellow faces behind” (4) and accordingly, kills the elephant because the Burmans wanted it dead. Therefore, he would earn respect of the Burmese people. Orwell shot the elephant due to the peer pressure of the citizens of Burma and to fit in with the Burmese people even though it went against his values, and also did it to “avoid looking a

Addressing the Elephant The motive behind George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, was the impending need to confess the brutality of British Imperialism which would use underdeveloped countries as a means of increased economic power by destroying their social framework and seizing their resources. As a British subdivision police officer who takes the side of the Burmese, he is faced with constant internal conflicts. Between the local villagers taking any chance they get to bitterly shout insults at him, to being a puppet for the British.

The narrator is a sub-divisional police officer at Moulmein, in Lower Burma. In his position, he sees the misery that imperialism produces. With his great authority came great anticipation. As a police officer he was targeted and disrespected by the local people. The young man was convinced he hated what he did for a living. Several citizens in the community ridiculed him every step of the way. As the days progressed he realized the faster he got the job done the sooner he could leave.

Analysis of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” In the 1936 essay ‘Shooting an Elephant’, George Orwell depicts one of his personal experiences during his time in Burma as a colonial police officer. The main theme of this essay revolves around the shooting of an elephant that was causing menace among the people of Moulmein. Orwell himself was involved in that shooting and he claims that, he did not want to shoot the elephant.

George Orwell’s essay, Shooting an Elephant, chronicles Orwell’s experiences in Moulmein, Burma. Orwell describes his growing hatred for British imperialism and his hardship shooting a wild elephant. Orwell states the incident of shooting the elephant “in a roundabout way was enlightening. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism.” The incident made Orwell aware that, “governments act from the same petty impulses” that drove Orwell to shoot the elephant.

In the story of "shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell talks about his experience of killing an elephant in Burma. He was an English sub- divisional police officer of Moulmein. At that time the relations between the natives and colonists were tense. One day, there was a report about a lost control elephant that was causing damage in the town. He went to the place where the elephant had looked before. Instead of seeing the elephant, he saw a terrible looking corpse in the mud killed by the elephant. Also, elephant has destroyed public and private property and killed livestock. With a purpose to defend himself if was necessary, Orwell took a rifle as he was searching for the elephant.

This short narration is really interesting because why would a man George Orwell choose to write about literally shooting an elephant? There had to be more to it just like a few things in life. Since he wrote this during the British imperialism there had to be more to it. The story takes place in Myanmar (Burma in the story) and the location matters because it’s so precise. It’s sort of like when you take an art class and learn that color and background all have meaning. The strongly feel that the British felt it was their duty to civilize these people of Burma as if they needed to be taught how to be a good human being, in this case if you weren’t white you weren’t right. So of course heritage, culture, and rituals all try to be taken away.

The essay, “Shooting an Elephant” written by George Orwell, talks about his personal experience from when he was about twenty years old and in during which he was forced to choose between two cruel choices. In the introduction of the essay, Orwell effectively sets the tone of the essay by describing his surroundings in Burma working as a British Police officer. Feelings of depression are described by the author as he continues to recount his experience in Burma. Even though he has reigned a certain level of authority over the Burmese natives as a British officer, Orwell is consistently humiliated by the natives themselves. Orwell uses his first paragraph by recounting the British rule over the Burmese. He then narrows the focus effectively onto an escaped elephant who