George Orwell Too Shoot And Elephant Analysis

Too Shoot an Elephant

George Orwell shares a heart and mind challenging event he experienced which he titled “Too Shoot and Elephant”. He writes to tells about how he was faced with the hate, guilt and oppression in a rural area in Burmese.

First you must understand that hate is such a very strong word but necessary towards what the evil of imperialism is doing to the Burmese people and their culture. The Burmese people hated him and have no respect towards him because of his title as an imperial officer. Imperialism has brought nothing good. The Burman always took advantage of an opportunity to make fun of him, as he wrote “When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the

He feels guilty because he didn’t control the situation quick enough. The elephant killed an innocent man, though the man was just a coolie, an unskilled laborer, he still did not deserve a pointless death. Orwell writes “the elephant had come suddenly upon him round the corner of the hut, caught him with his trunk, put its foot on his back and ground him into the earth” (pg. 325) with that it put a heavy guilt on his shoulders he felt he could have avoided because he is in charge and responsible when something horrible is a must. He even saw the coolie man’s face and writes “His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony.”(pg.325). Unendurable agony, that image with forever burned in his brain and with that will be the guilt that maybe, just maybe he and the elephants owner could have avoided. The elephant’s owner went an hour in the opposite direction as his “must” motivated elephant ran through the town. He has no idea of the destruction and death brought upon the elephant. He will be informed and the guilt will fallow as well. He will have guilt for the coolie man but more important to him, he has no time or chance to save his elephant, his machine, and his bread and butter. 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. He had to face what he thought was morally right but he also had the crowds eyes on him, now mind you these people don’t care for him or his title, so if he doesn’t fallow through he will be tormented and laughed at tenfold for the rest of his days as an officer. So the guilt there is he knows the elephants done but