George Orwell Shooting The Elephant Analysis

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Recommended: Negative impact of colonialism

Orwell in the story is a colonial policeman that is disrespected by the Burmese people of the town he is policing.He first uses language of himself as”young and ill-educated” to describe his hatred for his job. This allows him to reflect on colonialism and how he dislikes doing his job because he hates the idea of it so much.Orwell’s later in the story had to respond to a report of a local man who had been attacked by an elephant in Musth . Orwell sees the man “lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to the side.” The corpse had “an expression of unendurable agony.” At this point, Orwell feels the pressure of the Burmese people urging him to shoot the elephant, but Orwell knows that the elephant is not dangerous,

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