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Summary of the shooting an elephant by george orwell
Summary of the shooting an elephant by george orwell
Summary of the shooting an elephant by george orwell
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Well known author and journalist, George Orwell, in his essay, Shooting an Elephant, describes his experiences as a Policeman in Moulmein, Burma during European Imperialism. Orwell’s purpose is to convey the ideal that what is right and what is accepted don’t always align. He adopts a remorseful tone in order to convey to the reader the weight of his actions. By looking at George Orwell’s use of imagery and figurative language, one can see his strongly conflicting opinions on Imperialism. Orwell begins his essay, Shooting an Elephant, by explaining the actions of the Burmese people and by expressing his contempt for imperialism.
Shooting an Elephant Analysis Orwell mentions in the beginning of his essay that he was hated by the Burmans because he worked as a police officer under the British Empire. He was made a joke of in front of the town. When the incident with the elephant came, it gave him a chance to show his strong character to the natives by solving the problem. Orwell wrote Shooting an Elephant to inform his readers.
In Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell uses harsh Irony and clever metaphors to illustrate how everything is not always as it appears. The short story is like Aesop’s fable that reveals how Orwell became disillusioned with British imperialism. He uses this cynical and grim tale from his own life to bring others to his same conclusions. Foremost, George Orwell’s use of harsh irony throughout his story alludes to false appearances.
Orwell was a British police officer living in Burma at the time. A tame elephant had gone wild and escaped from its cage. It killed one of the Burman’s and then ran away to a field when it began grazing. The elephant was no longer
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
3) Orwell initially hesitates to kill the elephant because the elephant was not hurting anyone. In fact, the elephant was calmly eating food, while ignoring the crowd of people. Also, Orwell knew the elephant’s owner would be angry if his or her elephant got shot and died. The reason being, the elephant is worth much more alive than dead. However, Orwell decides to kill the elephant because the crowd of people were anticipating on him to shoot the elephant.
George Orwell’s experience described in his essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, taught him that after you begin to imperialize, you are sometimes forced to do things against your will to earn humanity. He knew he had no intention to kill the elephant out of cold blood, for the thought of how the elephant’s mahout would feel when he returned from his journey only to find his animal dead. However, the elephant was wild during his must period and was doing outrageous things that was harming the people and the environment of Lower Burma. Orwell knew that he was not well-liked by his fellow Burmans and, therefore could not bear to fail with the face of the crowd glaring at him. The elephant in the story is not only seen as an animal that would be seen
Shooting an Elephant Unexpected decisions that one is pushed to make can suffer make one. In George Orwell’s essay, “Shooting an Elephant” his decision to shoot on elephant is a more dilemma. Every individual must make troublesome judgments over the span of regular day to day existence. Choices that appear to be minor at the time may influence one's life for quite a long time. Some of the time the decision is whether to meet the desires of others or to meet the desires of the soul.
Orwell does care about the elephants life because he said “it seems to me it would be murder to shoot him”(Orwell, 4). Orwell all he wanted was just to fit in with the Burmans. Orwell “spend his life trying to impress the natives”(4). Afterwords Orwell was glad that the coolie had been killed by the elephant so he legally had the right to shoot the elephant. In conclusion Orwell never wanted to kill the elephant but he just wanted to get accepted into their native group.
In Between Desires and Expectations In the narrative, “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell writes about his memory of shooting an elephant, when he was a police officer in Moulmein, Lower Burma and shows the nature of imperialism. Firstly, he was not going to kill the elephant, because this “monster” elephant, who was destroying the city, was completely peaceful and calm, when he found it. However, the locals were expecting him to kill the elephant and put him under the pressure. He had inner conflict between his will to win the sympathy of Burmese and his sorrow of hiding his true intentions. He shoots the elephant at the end of his inner conflict in order not to look like a fool to the locals, to show his feelings as an Anglo-Indian in Burma and as a European to be the hero of the locals.
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.
Orwell wants to convey the message by explaining that imperialism is evil. It shames people, reducing them to the low status in their own country. Also, it pushes people into making immoral or unethical decisions to maintain their superiority. In “Shooting an Elephant," the narrator acts against his conscience to save face for himself and his fellow imperialists. He was a European policeman in Burma, and the Burmese feeling toward all Europeans was extraordinarily negative, and he knew that the Burmese people disliked him.
Throughout “Shooting An Elephant” , Orwell’s narrative style brings out internal and external conflicts that are relatable in society today. The narrator faces multiple internal and external conflicts. One external conflict being the Burmese and how they mock him because he is a representative of the British Empire, but he will do what it takes to show them he is not a fool. "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.
George Orwell held a unique perspective on Britain’s involvement in Burma. Through his own experiences in Burma, he developed an inner struggle between following orders and opposing imperialism, that he expressed in the story Shooting an Elephant. Orwell was born under the name Eric Blair in colonial India. As an adult, he joined the Imperial Police stationed in Burma, where he soon discovered a conflict brewing within himself. He was naturally a reflective person, analyzing what he saw to be obvious disparities in the two sides of an Imperialistic relationship.
At this point, the story slows as the narrator is forced to battle with himself over the life of the elephant. He eventually comes to the decision to shoot the elephant. In the end, the narrator reflects on the consequences of shooting the elephant and decides that what he did was right, even if he only did it to preserve his pride (Orwell). Orwell’s short story covers the narrator’s mental battles well and uses characterization and symbolism to convey the effects of imperialism on individuals and how the pressure of a group ’s wants can lead someone to a decision that is immoral.
