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Why Does Orwell Want To Kill The Elephant

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Throughout the English course so far we read a short story both about their own values in the first place. Orwell was challenged to save the elephant by waiting on it's owner or gain respect of the natives. As well as Daru was faced to take an Arab to jail or disobey the order from the french policeman. Furthermore all the stories we read were seeing how different people values were and how different they make choices. It is clear to see orwell’s conflict when he has to choose between caring for the elephant or gaining the respect of the Burmans. 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. Toward the ending Orwell says “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that i had done it solely to avoid looking a fool”(6). But in the end he killed the elephant so he can gain respect otherwise. …show more content…

Balducci gave Daru an order to take the Arab to jail but “Daru is hesitated, did not wanted to hurt the old corsican”(Camus, 4) but he is loyal to the french. Daru does not know whether the Arab deserves to be punish or let go. Daru leaves the man and tells him you can go back or go on ahead to the jail. Daru certainty believes that turing in the Arab was wrong, yet he fails to simply release the prisoner. When he was believing “the Arab was still there on the edge of the hill his arms hanging now, and he was looking at the schoolmaster”(13). Yet he fails to make his decision, and as a result he is left in complete moral solitude and a death sentence in

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Even though Orwell did commit the crime of shooting an elephant, throughout the story he used ethos, pathos, and figurative language to convince the audience if given the opportunity he would never shoot an elephant again because the elephant represents the innocence of people.     First and foremost, Orwell establishes his ethos. As stated in Everything’s an Argument, ethos is described as the author's credibility. He establishes his ethos right from the beginning of the story when he states he works for the British but he despises them.

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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

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As Orwell is debating on whether to shoot the elephant or not, he has the fear on his back of what his peers will think of him. At this moment he is letting his authoritarian conscience take over him. Although he does not want to shoot the elephant, he feels the pressure of pleasing the crowd. This leads to Orwell questioning how he should respond to the situation. Orwell proves Fromm's idea of authoritarian conscience as he debates whether or not to kill the elephant merely based on what others may think of him.

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But as he walked to find the elephant he was debating the whole time. Till he was 25 yards from the elephant Orwell then started to try and convince himself that he had to kill the elephant and show his authority. Orwell was afraid to even get close to the animal and only brought the gun to protect

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K.Kapler 8-26-17 English 1A Lourie,Iven The story, “Shooting an Elephant”, by George Orwell, states an elephant that ‘got loose’ (134,135) and was ‘running wildly’ (135,136) in the streets of “Moulmein’ (133). And since Orwell was part of a police force,which the people of Burma didn’t like. Nor liked him because he was a different color from how the people of Burma looked. Yet he was called out from his normal duties to ‘deal with the wild elephant’ (135,136). When he arrived, to ‘Moulmein” (133), which was a ‘lower Burma’ (133) city, his job was to find the elephant and deal with the issue it was causing to stress out the people of Burma.

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Due to Orwell’s military station he is automatically hated by the people of the Burma. The Burmese people show great hatred and disgust towards Orwell by tormenting him at every chance they get. This causes a huge problem for orwell because he begins to realize that the British empire systematically oppress the Burmese people and due to his military role he feels somewhat responsible and he begins to develop a growing hatred toward the British empire. One day an incident takes place. An elephant escapes from its chains and is threatening the villagers of burma.

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When he comes across the animal, he has no intention of killing it, but he realizes that there is a massive group of people watching behind him. In this moment, he has to decide wether or not to kill the animal. Orwell realizes that if he doesn’t he will be

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Orwell says, “But that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me”. From that moment, the officer started thinking about what the Burman expected from him, and what effect it would have on him if he did not shoot the elephant. The officer also began to think about what the Burmans thought of him; how he went from being a nobody to

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He could not bare the dilemma he was feeling. He knew he was in the wrong for shooting the elephant and watching it slowly die, hearing him breathe only made it worse. Was his gain of respect amongst the Burma’s worth the agonizing feeling of regret? In the end Orwell walks away. He later finds that he did not gain the respect of all the Burma’s like he’d hoped.

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He felt his only choices were to either shoot the elephant and give the people what they wanted or to not shoot the elephant and be ridiculed. He was providing entertainment as well as meat for those that followed, but Orwell expresses that he did not want to shoot the elephant. However, against his better judgement he fell into their expectation, feeling pressured, and shot the elephant.

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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.

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Within Orwell’s short story Shooting an Elephant, an intimate character study is depicted alongside class disparity, metaphorical symbolism, and fundamentally disagreeing with the job at hand. Orwell portrays himself as the furthest thing from a company man, working for the British Empire in Burma as a police officer. The Burmese could not think less of him, and the mentality spreads from monks laughing at him patrolling the street, to bullying in a recreational football match. The great irony here lies in Orwell not trusting the integrity of his superiors, empathizing with the villagers he lives alongside.

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(pg.326) which he didn’t, but he assassinated the elephant due to the force of the coolie. Guilt is shown when Orwell says “In the end I couldn’t stand it any longer and went away.” (pg. 330) He didn’t want to watch the suffering of the elephant. Orwell’s use of the yellow faces symbolizes the pressure forced by the coolie, the anger they led on, and the cold-heartedness of the crowd.

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