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In the beginning of, “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell establishes that the separation of power in colonial Burma resides more than just black-and-white. While it seems he holds symbolic authority and military supremacy as a British police officer, Orwell is still powerless to stop the hatred and abuse he receives from the oppressed Burmese. This hatred, that may be perceived, will become an influential reason as to why he would feel guilty regardless if he would have have or haven’t taken responsibility for his actions. Orwell, in the beginning, views the elephant as,”... not a wild elephant, but a tame one which had gone ‘must’”, but he later realizes, that the elephant itself, represents more than just an animal. Orwell is able to better comprehend
Orwell appeals to authority by his verb tense shifts that create a reflective tone and use of word choice. For example, the speaker states how, “ I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on
He had been watching this elephant for a while and it wasn’t currently disrupting the people. Causing him to not want to kill the elephant because technically it wasn’t causing any harm. He also talks about the worth of the elephant by saying “alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds, dead he would only be worth the value of his tusks, five pounds possibly”(Orwell 709). By him stating that observation it shows that if it were up to him he wouldn’t kill the
This caused the crowd to follow Orwell because they were eager to see the beast shot. This made Orwell feel very uncomfortable because the once angry elephant has now calmed down and is eating some grass. At this point Orwell thinks that he doesn't have to shoot the elephant, he just watches the elephant to make sure he doesn't go on a rampage again. Because Orwell feel like he has morals as a police officer he decides to kill the harmless elephant.
There are numerous themes in this short story such as British imperialism and colonial resentment however the most prominent theme in this story is fear of humiliation and the effect peer- pressure has on an individual. The setting of Burma helps work with this theme as it provides an area for the plot to take place and develop. After marching miles to the destination of the elephant, a crowd had surrounded George Orwell and encourages Orwell to kill the elephant. George Orwell is compelled to kill the once ravaging elephant due to the fact that Orwell wants to avoid looking like a fool. George Orwell is willing to sacrifice his role of doing the right thing and fulfilling the Burmese wishes in order to save himself from
Orwell acknowledged both the practical advantages of the living elephant as well as the ethical significance of life. Because of this, he “had no intention of shooting the elephant” (Orwell 5) and believed it would be unjustified to do so. Despite this, Orwell felt the urge to shoot the elephant because of his desire for public acceptance from the Burmese. Orwell’s views shifted as he attempted to please the public that he was supposedly in control of. This made him feel as if he was “an abused puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind” (5).
" Here, Orwell is most likely self consciousness about what he is about to do. The crowd doesn't know they are making him nervous about his decision, but yet they expect him to do something that is morally wrong to Orwell. He knows that because he is self conscious, he is willing to please them in any way he can, "Here was I, the white man with his gun... seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only
Orwell conveniences the reader that imperialism has not only a negative impact on those run by imperialist, but also degrades those holding the power of an imperialist. Like other works Orwell has written they too have expressed his opinion on social and political aspects. In “Shooting an Elephant,” readers can recognize his opinions on imperialism through the narrator’s display of pathos. Orwell over and over expresses his hatred, fear, doubt, and distress for authority of imperialist. The narrator states “As for the job [he] was doing, [he] hated it more bitterly than [he] perhaps make clear.”
Orwell's personal feelings about killing the elephant who didn't seem to bother anyone. Orwell felt the pressure to kill the elephant because was his job to protect the people as well as make them happy. Orwell draws attention to the excitement
The most humane option for him was to keep the elephant alive. Despite the hard pressure Orwell received, he had no desire to kill the innocent animal but had to for the sake of the others. Afterward, he says, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool” (Orwell). He shot the elephant solely because everyone else thought it was right to. Heteronomous obedience plays a huge part; he made his decision due on others' beliefs rather than his own.
In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell describes his experience of killing an elephants when he was an officer in Burma. He explains how the local Burmese hated him and saw him as the authority of the repressive white British. He mentions that he also had the same feeling about the local Burmese. Even though he hated the Thyestean imperialism but he also hated what he called the yellow-faced and evil-spirted Burmese people. One day, he was told that an elephant was destroying the bazaar and killing people.
This narrative piece is an effective expository technique that describes the narrator’s thoughts and tone. Orwell uses oxymoron such as “grinning corpse” and paradox phrases such as “the story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes”. Another paradox statement is shown in “I perceived this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys”. Orwell’s decisions were briskly altered as he was deciding on whether to kill the elephant or not. His mind altered from “I ought not to shoot him” to “I had got to do it” and also to “But I did not want to shoot the elephant”.
The elephant will also die a semi-pointless death as well. The must was over when Orwell approached the elephant, at a distance of course. “He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth” (pg.326). Here is where more guilt comes into play. Orwell unintentionally brought a crowd who wanted to see a show.
Orwell’s vivid description of the elephant’s rampage, “The people said that the elephant had come suddenly
The Burmans slight acts of rebellion by spitting and laughing at the British is represented by the elephant going “must”. Orwell 's self-imposed task of upholding the British Empire’s mask of control can be related to the Empire’s goal of controlling or “taming” Burmese society. Orwell is aware that his reputation reflects that of all the other Europeans. This awareness plays a role in his deciding to shoot the elephant because if he didn’t, the Burman’s would question British authority and think of them as weak (Orwell).
