Internal And External Conflict In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

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Shooting An Elephant
The story “ Shooting An Elephant” by George Orwell is about a man who lives in Bruma as a police officer. Bruma is under British control and they are not aloud to own guns. Being a British officer, the narrator was aloud to own one at the time. The story is told in first person, as readers learn about a traumatizing experience the narrator had in his past. When the narrator heard the news about an elephant going wild and destroying most of the Burmese homes, he rushed to find the elephant and shoot it. During his journey, he told himself that he would not shoot the elephant. But when he arrived face to face with the large mammal, with thousands of people watching, he shot it multiple times until the elephant fell. Minutes later, he came back with a different weapon brutally killing the elephant.
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."(Orwell). In …show more content…

The theme of this story is pressure in general, as well as peer pressure. In the story the narrator tells himself that he is not going to shoot the elephant. But when he is doubted by the Burmese people and he is surrounded by about two thousand of them, the pressure is on to shoot the elephant. This style leads the readers to able to feel that pressure because in everyday life, people are pressured to do stuff they necessarily do not want to try or do. The story is relatable in the sense that readers can feel the internal conflict