In George Orwell’s, “Shooting an Elephant,” he is working a very difficult job in an even more difficult environment. He is put in a complicated situation where he has to make a complex decision that will torment him for the rest of his life. The decision not only affects him individually, but it also affects how other people around him view him. Orwell ultimately made the right decision to shoot the elephant. Orwell is trained to handle dangerous situations because of his work, the people around him are judgmental, and the elephant killed a human-being. Orwell also has to think about other people in this situation. The people around him are very judgmental and very prejudiced. For example, Orwell says, “No one had the guts to raise a riot, but if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice all over her dress” (Orwell). So this shows that people are obviously prejudiced. And when Orwell made the decision to shoot the elephant he had to think about the other people’s opinion on wanting …show more content…
In the essay it states, “He was lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side” (Orwell). So this savage elephant has killed a human being and if that happened today in our society, no one would hesitate to kill it. For instance, in 2015 at the YellowStone National park, a bear killed a hiker and the chief had to decide whether or not to put it down, or set it free. Although many people said to put the bear down, he decided to set the bear into the wild (Wilkinson). Even though the bear was spared and the elephant was not, there was still a choice on to kill the bear or not, just like the elephant. Also another example you here about everyday is that if your pet has just attacked someone, but not killed, you have to put them down. So Orwell’s choice to kill that elephant wasn’t the most crazy or heartless thing ever, it happens all the