Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

582 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Shooting an elephant critical analysis

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

In his essay Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell explains how the controlling authorities in a hostile country are not controlling the country's population but are in fact a mere tool of the populous. Orwell's experience with the elephant provided the insight for his essay, and gives a clear example of the control the natives have over the authorities.

The authorities in Lower Burma were there to police the state that their government controlled, but were only accomplished in being controlled by the people of the state. Orwell finds this truth in his encounter with the elephant that has ravaged parts of the city. Orwell develops a following of the native people after he finds the Indian who has been trampled by the elephant, but doesn't realize that these people are going to make him shoot the elephant. As Orwell comes upon the elephant, peacefully eating grass, he knows that he is not going to harm the animal, but rather watch him and make sure it doesn't go "mad" again. Orwell then notices the immense crown of natives that has formed around him, all hoping to get a little entertainment. It is at this moment that Orwell understands that he must now kill the animal. Orwell writes, "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." This understanding by Orwell is how the people, who Orwell was meant to control, had turned the tables and seized control of the situation with their presence alone. How could Orwell waiver the people around him were expecting that the animal be killed? If Orwell had walked away the air of control would be lost, leaving Orwell to the la...

... middle of paper ...

...and poured shot after shot into his heart and down his throat. They seemed to make no impression. The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away." Instead of hearing the laughter from the crowd, Orwell was faced with listening to the creature he shot die in extreme pain.

This situation put all the guilt on Orwell, to save face he shot an elephant and was forced to watch the creature die. This need not to be laughed at is the control that the people had over the authorities. Orwell could not back down for fear of ridicule by the people who he was to police, so he shot the animal. Then as to further solidify the natives control over him, Orwell was forced to listen to the elephant he shot die in agony. The crowd around him dictated his decision, and Orwell was powerless to their influence.

Show More
Related

  • Merton's Identity

    763 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the story, Orwell described how he was heavily pressured by the Burmese into shooting an elephant, stating that he became "... an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind" (Capote 583). Through Orwell's diction it became known that Orwell was hated by the majority of his residing village since he upheld the position of a sub divisional police officer for the British Raj in colonial Burma. Orwell was driven to killing the animal out of desperation of the public dropping all forms of hatred towards him. Although killing the elephant was against his will, Orwell went through with the deed earning a new profound identity known as the elephant

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Shooting An Elephant And The Lottery

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Shooting an Elephant” focuses on society by pressure. In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell is pressured by the native people to shoot and kill the elephant, even though the elephant is no longer harmless. In the beginning of the essay, the natives repeatedly attack Orwell every day. When the elephant goes insane, the natives go to Orwell for help. The natives were constantly pressuring Orwell as he said, “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him” (Orwell par. 7). Orwell is pressured by society to do the opposite of what he feels is morally

    Read More

  • Peer Pressure (An analysis of “Shooting an Elephant” and “No Witchcraft for Sale”)

    788 Words  | 2 Pages

    The first text by George Orwell entitled, “Shooting an Elephant” shows how peer pressure greatly influenced him in making his final decision. While George made his way to where the elephant was spotted he stated, “I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. I was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute.” (Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, page 1322) With two thousand people around wanting him to shoot and kill an “innocent looking” would be peer pressure to say the least. Orwell then states, “I did not want to shoot the elephant” (Orwell, Shooting an Elephant, page 1323) However, in the end, with the large crowd drooling over the excitement of seeing an elephant being shot, Orwell shot the elephant. Technically the elephant did go on a rampage, killing a man in the process, but now the elephant had calmed down. The reason the elephant was in suc...

    Read More

  • True Power in "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell

    1473 Words  | 3 Pages

    The state of power established through the imperialistic backdrop show that Orwell should have control over the Burmese. Orwell is a British colonial officer in Burma, which is under the control of the British, and because of this he should have authority and control over the Burmans. The presence of the empire is established when Orwell explains that, “with one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny...upon the will of the prostrate people; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s gut.” (144) This ideal imperialistic circumstance, where ...

    Read More

  • Shooting An Elephant Analysis

    801 Words  | 2 Pages

    The essay “Shooting an Elephant,” was written by George Orwell. Orwell was a British author best known for his essays and novels. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the title essay of his 1950 collection, Orwell is a British Police Officer in Lower Burma. After an elephant comes rampaging through the village in must, killing an Indian man, Orwell is looked upon to take care of the problem. The intense scene causes Orwell to make a crucial decision, reflecting on the vicious imperialism with the military in Burma during this time. The author portrays his feelings through the theme of the narrative with feelings such as, guilt, hate, and pressured.

    Read More

  • The Use of Metaphors in Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

    878 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this story ,Orwell is taking part in imperialism by proving his power and dignity to the natives presenting imperialism metaphorically through the use of animals. He is using the elephant as a symbol of imperialism representing power as an untamed animal that has control over the village. He uses a large and very powerful animal to represent a significant metaphor for imperialism.. In doing so he leads to the understanding that the power behind imperialism is only as strong as its dominant rulers. Orwell?s moral values are challenged in many different ways, ironically enough while he too was the oppressor. He is faced with a very important decision of whether or not he should shoot the elephant. If he does so, he will be a hero to his people. In turn, he would be giving in to the imperial force behind the elephant that he finds so unjust and evil. If he lets the elephant go free and unharmed the natives will laugh at him and make him feel inferior for not being able to protect the...

    Read More

  • The darkness that blinds all

    548 Words  | 2 Pages

    Orwell is a very complex man, he begins to contradict himself by saying he hates what imperialism does but chooses to work for that government. Even though he states that he hated his job, his actions show imperialism. When having the choice to kill or not to kill the elephant, he chose death. This here specifies how imperialism took over; oddly enough not by the government but by the people. The people staring and waiting for him to ki...

    Read More

  • Human Nature

    484 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the last paragraph of Orwell’s essay, there had been two men that had feelings on the shooting of the elephant.

    Read More

  • The Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

    781 Words  | 2 Pages

    While he was obtaining a rifle and following the elephant, more people continued to trail behind him, eventually growing to become a crowd of more than two-thousand. Knowing that the force behind him was much greater than his own, it was distracting him and knew “…even then I was not thinking particularly of my own skin, only of the watchful yellow faces behind”. The pressure from his military duty was eating away at him as well, thinking to himself “the crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the east, was one long struggle not to be laughed at”. Afterwards, the old soldiers believed he did the right thing because he was doing his duty by resolving a casualty; the young soldiers thought "it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie" because the elephant had already calmed down and the owner was not present. Relying on optimism, Orwell in the end was content with the casualty and saw his actions legally justified because of

    Read More

  • Similarities Between Shooting An Elephant And George Orwell

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    When he finial find the elephant Orwell say “I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” But when he lays his eyes on the crowd he changes his stance to “but I did not want to shoot the elephant.”(Orwell 199). He felt guilty for shooting the elephant when he describe that the elephant worth more alive than dead, but despite the many reason not to shoot the elephant, he took a shot. Orwell describes “when I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick …I fired again into the same spot…I fired a third time. That was the shot that did it for him.”(199) the shooting of the elephant represent the Burma people trying to stay alive and over powering by the

    Read More

  • Shooting An Elephant Internal Conflicts

    613 Words  | 2 Pages

    In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell faces many different conflicts, including internal and external conflicts. Not only does he faces these conflicts, he is also faced with an enormous situation. In the situation, he is the one that is responsible for determining the outcome. He notices that the different decisions have different consequences. He is basically put in a situation where he has to decide which consequence he would rather deal with.

    Read More

  • Conflict In Shooting An Elephant

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    He describes, “I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro” (60). He is dealing with the internal conflicts of who he should align with: himself, the British, or the Burmese. If he were to acknowledge his beliefs and align with himself, he could be the start of an uprise. Surely, others would follow. He even confirms his “thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny” and says, “Ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you catch him off duty,” referring to the hatred of the English empire (58). By expressing his dislike for the British, Orwell is finally attempting to stand up for his beliefs. The fact that his character is unable to execute his beliefs, though, highlights him trying to not look foolish in the presence of others. Clearly, he is in an unbearable circle of self-deprecation and doubt. By the end of the narrative, Orwell’s character regrets his decision to shoot the elephant. This ultimately represents Orwell’s uncertainty as he goes through life. He, like all of us, is struggling to predict which path is the best for him to go down as he ventures through his existence. Because of this, his actions for shooting the elephant are justified. He is just trying to accomplish all that he can while simultaneously dealing with his own questions of identity. This allows Orwell to be seen as a humble individual who is just trying

    Read More

  • Pride and Power in George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" and "A Hanging"

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    One of Orwell’s distinctive characteristics is his emphasis of his emotional response to life and death in every situation. Orwell engages readers in his pieces because they feel that they can sit back and imagine what is going on in every situation through the narrator’s eyes. Every sentence is a new description that touches the audience’s emotions. In “A Hanging,” Orwell describes the death sentence scene by stating, “gripping the prisoner more closely than ever, they half led, half pushed him to the gallows and helped him clumsily up the ladder. Then the hangman climbed up and fixed the rope round the prisoner’s neck” (Orwell: A Hanging). Orwell’s perspective on the scene was that the prisoner was slowly walking to his death in a torturous way. He focuses on the sadness he feels versus other people’s perspectives and feelings. It seems that Orwell does not take death easily, so he uses evocative words to describe the trauma through his eyes. In “Shooting an Elephant,”Orwell’s point of view is that killing the elephant will not only hurt the animal, but it will destroy his own pride as a reluctant shooter. He looks at the big picture, but he also identifies with the subj...

    Read More

  • George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant - A Moral Dilemma

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...o the wrong spot cause the poor animal to die "very slowly and in great agony." In spite of Orwell putting "shot after shot into his heart and down his throat," the elephant lives thirty minutes after its "tortured gasps" force Orwell to leave. Many years later, Orwell still seems bothered by the fact that pride, not necessity, caused him to destroy the animal.

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis of Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    Orwell?s extraordinary style is never displayed well than through ?Shooting an Elephant,? where he seemingly blends his style and subject into one. The story deals with a tame elephant that all of a sudden turns bad and kills a black Dravidian coolie Indian. A policeman kills this elephant through his conscience because the Indians socially pressurized him greatly. He justified himself as he had killed elephant as a revenge for coolie.

    Read More

More about Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

Open Document