Compression, Evil And Confliction In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

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Shooting an Elephant In George Orwell’s story, “Shooting an Elephant,” he goes through numerous emotions. It is a very thought provoking work that takes the reader inside his mind. He goes through many emotions throughout the text, he experienced humiliation, evil, and confliction. In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell experiences humiliation. “When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter” (p.323) His profession of being a police officer made him an enemy and a target to most people in town. “None of them had anything to do except stand on the street corners and jeer at Europeans.” (pg.323) The natives spent most of their time picking on Europeans who were …show more content…

He was doubtful “We began questioning the people as to where the elephant had gone, and, as usual, failed to get any definite information.” (pg.325) Without any concrete evidence or information regarding the supposed elephant, the writer begins to severely doubt its existences. “I had almost made up my mind that the whole story was a pack of lies.” (pg.327) After talking amongst the people, Orwell felt as if the presence of an elephant was a lie and maybe possibly even a trick. Another way he felt confliction was through the innocence of the elephant once he discovered the story was real. “I had no intention of shooting the elephant.” (pg.327) Even before he saw how calm and harmless the “beast” was, he didn’t want to shoot it, “The animal looked no more dangerous than a cow.” (pg.324) The elephant appears harmless, making Orwell think twice about shooting him. Just as quickly as he felt innocence, the writer felt determination as well. “They were watching me as if they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.” George Orwell realizes that at the moment, he is the source of the natives entertainment. All eyes are upon him as the crowd waits for him to make a decision. “I had to shoot an elephant, I committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle.” (pg.327) Here, the writer flips a switch completely and realizes he must shoot the elephant. He sees that because of his request for such a weapon, the crowd now expects it from him, so he does. George Orwell goes through mixed emotions of doubt, innocence, and determination, thus making him

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