Worth The Shot In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

Peer pressure is a common aspect of society that can ultimately result in devastating consequences. Often times, one is encouraged to follow the beliefs of others by changing their values and behaviors. Whether one truly has the motive to perform such actions, those who surround always have the potential to influence our decisions. In the short story, “Shooting an Elephant”, written by George Orwell, the concept of one being pressured to perform something against their will in order to preserve their image is very prominent. This essay well illustrates how people will do whatever it takes to conform to the common beliefs of society even if it doesn’t follow what they

He repeats over and again that he did not want to shoot the elephant. He confesses, “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to.” Orwell gives emotional reasons for being against the idea of shooting the animal and not rational. He generalizes all elephants to have a “preoccupied grandmotherly air” and compares the elephant to a cow. The writer uses the simile, “They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.” to explain the pressure he had from the crowd watching him. Orwell remarks that regardless of his decision to shoot the elephant, he cannot change the thinking of the public about him. Orwell was moved by the hefty crowd that followed him. He was left with no choice other than to shoot the elephant because that was what the crowd expected of him and this scene signifies the failure of imperialism which is the writer’s overall theme. The sentence, “I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East.” helps explain to the reader the real failure of imperialism. Orwell insists that although the white man in the East has power which is symbolized by the rifle, he is still not allowed to make use of it in accordance with his will. He is classifying imperialism as a hollow and futile way of governance. The Englishmen

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.

As Orwell glanced at the growing crowd, he instantly perceived the common desires of the people “They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all” (3).These people wanted revenge for the death of the innocent man, the meat its carcass would provide, and the amusement of witnessing the shootings “The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly” (3). Because of these collective expectations, Orwell had to appear determined, authoritative, and decisive through shooting the elephant or else his reputation and the rest of the British colonizers’ reputation would be

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.

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 "Shooting an Elephant", Orwell succumb to the expectation of the public which is to shoot the elephant dead even though it is against what he believes in.

Orwell next faces the moral dilemma of whether or not to shoot the elephant. At first, it is clear that he does not feel the internal urge to shoot the elephant: "It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him" (Orwell.525). However, Orwell's virtue becomes dwarfed as the Burmese's "two thousand wills [press him] forward"(524) to kill the elephant. At this point there is an obvious role reversal as the Burmese begin to strongly influence Orwells decisions. Because he constantly dwells on what the crowd will think of him he shoots the elephant. Thus submitting to the will of the people and committing the immoral deed of abandoning ones own conscious because of the pressure of others.

Orwell is a very descriptive writer who emphasizes a different moral in every essay. He is not simply describing an elephant shooting or a hanging; he is trying to make readers listen to his messages. One of the messages that Orwell wants his readers to understand is the power that role playing has on the human mind. Orwell demonstrates this theme quite easily in both essays. Before killing the elephant, Orwell states, “I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle. A sahib has got to act like a sahib…”(Orwell: Shooting an Elephant). This statement illustrates how people with power must live up to their expectations to keep that power. He knows he has the power to kill the animal, so he makes himself fit the role of a killer. Power can affect the way people act. A modern day example of this is shown when gang members act on thoughts of the group to gain acceptance by other members. The acceptance gives them power and this is a universal idea that Orwell focuses on. Orwell also stresses power to describe human nature. Orwell likes to use this in both essays because it explains the inconsistency that humans have when power takes over. This is one of Orwell’s morals he stresses to his audience to make them realize the poor decisions people make when in power.

Many of the reasons he does not want to shoot the elephant are for the wrong reasons though. At the time he finds the elephant he says, “it is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant - it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery - and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided.” Doing a bad thing is not the same as being a bad person. By most accounts people regard Orwell as a great author. His most famous books focusing on social inequality.

Orwell never wanted to shoot the Elephant as he even compared destroying the elephant to “destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery.” However, as the crowd which represented pressure, watched on with amusement as if as Orwell put it, “they were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.” The “magic rifle” being Orwell’s wand that entranced the audience with every move he made. As Orwell continues to have an inner dilemma he ultimately becomes as he puts it, “in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces.” One of the major themes throughout the book being pressure to conform. Keep in mind that during this time Orwell a British police officer justifiably despised upon in Burma as Great Britain colonized Burma enforcing harsh imperialism. Orwell at first tried to justify himself if he shot the elephant by walking within twenty-five yards and if the elephant charged him he would shoot. However, that play never came into fruition as he could not get past the possibility that the Burmese would see him get trampled by the elephant. As his previous plan to not shoot the elephant went down the train, he finally cracked under pressure, solving his inner dilemma. A subtle element incorporated into the elephant was when he would not die after Orwell shot him. That represented how he made the wrong choice and was truly unjustified in shooting the elephant as his dilemma never truly ended, it merely transformed into something else. The elephant represented Colonialism as you could never truly kill that, furthermore, you can not go back in time and fix your mistakes. As can be seen with him leaving the elephant after continuously shooting him, not being able to endure the “dreadful noise.” Representing that Orwell’s actions like that of Britain colonizing Burma, were both irreversible,

Causing Orwell to gain peer pressure towards him actually ‘having no choice but to kill the beast’ (137). Even though the people of Burma called for his help, they still expect him to shoot down the animal even if Orwell ‘doesn’t intend to’ (136) do so. Yet he was told what the elephant had done, which was: ‘ravaging the bazaar’ (134), ‘destroyed someone’s bamboo hut, killed a cow, raided fruit stands and devoured the stock, turned a van over and inflicted violence upon it…, squished a man’s dead body sprawled onto the floor’

In this novel Orwell effectively uses 1st person point of view to show the mental change the narrator underwent throughout the course of the story. By the reader having such an in depth point of view in this novel, you are able to see the reasoning and logic that leads to this change in the narrator's ideology. In the beginning when the narrator went to get his rifle he states, “ I took my rifle, an old 44 Winchester and much too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might be useful in terrorem”(Orwell 571). By the narrator stating this in the beginning, it shows he truly did not want to harm the elephant. Also from the statements, “ I had no intention of shooting the elephant, I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary”(Orwell 573) and, “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him”(Orwell 573), the reader is able to tell initially he had no intention of harming the animal, but was overcame by peer pressure. The point of view is effective in showing this, because in first

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

Peer pressure’s grasp reaches everybody daily. Too often people tend follow the crowd’s decision instead of maintaining their own morals. The guilt felt after conceding to a crowd’s way of thinking can crush a person. In a small Burmese town, a police officer feels pressure in a defining showdown with an elephant. George Orwell reveals the consequences of caving into peer pressure through imagery found in “Shooting an Elephant.”