In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, Orwell is faced with the issue of having to shoot a mad elephant. Orwell starts off his essay by discussing the hatred that the Burmese have for Europeans, especially the British. The locals show their disdain for Orwell by tripping him during a soccer game or insulting him. Orwell understands the Burmese’s hatred on one hand, but on the other wants to “drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts” (Orwell ****). Orwell’s relationship with the natives is especially illustrated when an elephant goes “must” starts destroying a bazaar (Maybe citation ***). Orwell is unsure of what to do and tries to assess the situation. First, he is uncertain of whether or not the elephant exists due to conflicting …show more content…
He felt that, because he was already not liked, he had no choice but to kill the elephant. Orwell’s feeling of peer pressure to kill the elephant can be translated in modern times as well. For instance, the peer pressure to try drugs and fear of being ridiculed for not doing so is much like Orwell’s situation. It saddened me that Orwell decided to kill the elephant, but with over 2,000 people watching him, he had no choice. I can relate to him giving in to peer pressure, because when people expect something of you, it is hard not to follow through. Orwell sets up his essay to reflect his experience of killing the elephant to his experiences with imperialism. The elephant symbolizes the locals and how the locals act towards the British. The elephant was tame, but after being in chains for a long time period, he became angry, much like the Burmese. Orwell also shot the elephant while it was peacefully eating grass. The elephant getting shot while being peaceful symbolizes how the Burmese do not deserve to be subjugated by the British. Orwell furthers the cycle of brutish imperialism by shooting the innocent elephant, just like the innocent Indian people had been
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.
A police officer in the British Raj, the supposedly 'unbreakable'; ruling force, was afraid. With his gun aimed at a elephant's head, he was faced with the decision to pull the trigger. That officer was George Orwell, and he writes about his experience in his short story, 'Shooting an Elephant';. To save face, he shrugged it off as his desire to 'avoid looking the fool'; (George Orwell, 283). In truth, the atmosphere of fear and pressure overwhelmed him. His inner struggle over the guilt of being involved in the subjugation of a people added to this strain, and he made a decision he would later regret enough to write this story.
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...
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...
Every day, each individual will look back on decisions he or she have made and mature from those experiences. Though it takes time to realize these choices, the morals and knowledge obtained from them are priceless. In George Orwell’s nonfictional essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, a young Orwell was stationed in Burma for the British imperial forces, tasked to deal with an elephant who destroyed various parts of the village Moulmein while its owner was away. Backed by second thoughts and a crowd of thousands, he finds himself shooting the elephant and reflecting that it was not justified; however, it was a choice pushed by his duty and the people. Written with a fusion of his young and old self’s outlook on shooting the elephant, Orwell’s essay is a sensational read that captivates his audience and leaves them questioning his decision.
The resulting shooting of the elephant by Orwell occured due to two notable psychological phenomena: Normative Social Influence and Deindividuation.
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
“Shooting an Elephant” is a self-portrait of George Orwell. In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell details an unforgettable incident while he was stationed as a military officer in Burma. In detailing acts of violence in shocking detail as well as using violent metaphors throughout his essay, George Orwell indicates that Burma is a place charged with racial tensions that threaten to explode into chaos. George Orwell was being humiliated and hated by Burmese, many incidents reveal the harassment faced by him, like on the football field when he was tripped up the native, “the crowd yelled with hideous laughter”.(Orwell,436). He says tat young natives used to insult him a lot and was most offended by the hatred nature of the young Buddhist priests.
Orwell struggles to find himself, but he does find himself by growing into his mask, and since he did not like the mask he grew into, he decided to find a different one. Shooting an elephant is an essay that George Orwell had written about his work in India as a British Officer. George Orwell talks about what it is like working near the prisons and seeing “the workings of imperialism” up close. Orwell speaks about how the Burmese feel about the British being there, and how he, himself feels about the British presence. There seems to be an alignment of dislike towards the oppressors in this case, the oppressors being the British.
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
Orwell’s thoughts, emotions and actions in this story reinforce its primary theme: Take responsibility for your actions. In the opening lines of Shooting an Elephant, one main internal conflict was introduced. The imperial army had taken control of the Burmese
The symbolic story in the Shooting an Elephant is an attack towards imperialism. Orwell presents the ironic truth that imperialism benefits neither the imperialist nor the countries they colonize. It is perhaps sad to see that men were once willing to buy in to the fraudulent and ephemeral glory that imperialism have offered. Hopefully, men have learned their lessons and no other animal will be sacrificed for men's greed.
...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.
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.
In George Orwell’s, “Shooting an Elephant” Orwell recounts an encounter he experienced as a sub-divisional police officer in Burma. Orwell recalls the day an elephant in “musk” escaped and began ravaging the Burmese village. Upon this discovery, Orwell sets out to find the elephant and assess the situation. Throughout his narrative, Orwell recounts the mental struggle he faced regarding the fate of the elephant. Because Orwell fears humiliation, he succumbs to social pressure and shoots the elephant.