Shooting An Elephant Response Paper

Response Paper #2 In George Orwell’s story “Shooting an Elephant” a tamed elephant escapes and is shot by a British police officer. There are many reasons that cause the British policeman to shoot this elephant. First, at the time of this incident, Great Britain colonized Burma and many native citizens hated the British for dictating their lives. On the other hand, in the situation when only the British police office has the rifle to shoot the elephant. The rifle symbolizes the power. The British police office has the rifle indicates that he is the only one who can deprive the elephant’s life at that moment. Shooting an elephant shows that the British police has power in this town. Second, from native Burmese’s perspective, it is obvious that they have anti-European feeling and hate British because

Burmese’ interest pushes him to shoot the elephant in order to prove himself. Third, when the British police office sees the elephant in the paddy fields, he doesn’t want to shoot it. But the Burmese crowd behind him force him to shoot the elephant. Violating the crowd’s expectation leads them to laugh at him if he has the rifle but not kill the elephant. He thinks that “my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laugh at” because white man needs to impress the natives so that they can easily control the natives by meeting natives’ expectations (Orwell 3). Instead of showing sympathy and compassion for the elephant, the officer took it upon himself to shoot the elephant because he wants to show his “white” pride. He doesn’t want to be a fool who couldn’t do his job in order to stay superior to the foreign eyes. Last but not least, when the British police officer is told that the elephant destroys the huts in bazaars and kill a black Dravidian coolie, he decides to use a rifle to protect himself. However, the death of the black Dravidian coolie gives him to a good reason to shoot the