Shooting An Elephant

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell Have you ever looked at something or someone and started reminiscing negative comments in your head about them? What about cared what others thought of you and tried to play hero to get them to like you? George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, is a great example of this scenario. This essay secretly hid three key points that most written documents may or may not pinpoint on. It explains how you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, animals should be treated just as equal as humans, and always be yourself. It’s easy to pick on someone by their action or appearance, but what about when you’re the victim? In the essay the two victims here are both Orwell and the elephant.

Where he says, “But even then I was not thinking particularly of my own skin, only of the watchful yellow faces behind”, was implying the fact that he wanted the town to recognize him. It, no doubt, made him feel like he should be the hero. He had two choices: kill the elephant or let it go, and what did he choose? He chose to kill it all to get praised by the people. He didn’t care how if felt. Have you ever heard the saying, ”What goes around comes around”? I’m not saying that he’ll kill somebody, or eat up their stocks, or make angry elephant noises, no. What I am saying is that karma might eventually come back at him and hit hard. People like Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King Jr., or Malcolm X are heroes, but not the way Orwell sees himself as. They did what was right by how they felt. They didn’t rely on anyone or cared what they thought of them. I’m not implying that Orwell is a bad guy, it’s just actions were bad. The elephant didn’t know any better. Same with other dangerous species, for example tigers. They are wild animals that you can have as pets, but I wouldn’t advise it. They attack humans because they want a challenge and pose them as a threat. That’s why they say you shouldn’t show too much skin, especially around the neck