Rhetorical Analysis Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

In the essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell retells his experiences and feelings of being disrespected as a sub-divisional police officer in Moulmein, Burma. Early one morning, In the lower part of Burma, an elephant was reported ravaging the bazaar. As Orwell’s curiosity persuades him to go investigate the elephant, the author sees the damage that the elephant left behind. He prepares out of fear to “murder” the elephant with an elephant rifle. In doing this he excited the Burmese, who led a crowd behind Orwell, encouraging him to shoot the elephant who was now no more harmless than a cow. Orwell’s diction and actions, shows a complex tone towards the natives through his loyalties, his use of racist slurs, and his struggle with power and control.
Undoubtedly, Orwell’s diction conveys a complex tone, when explaining his loyalties

with the natives and the British Empire. He states previously in the text that he was “...all for the burmese…”(Orwell, 1.) He later shows that he isn’t truly all for the burmese by admitting, “All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.”(Orwell, 1.) Orwell reveals his inner conflict between the natives and his job with the british. He views both the british and natives in negative ways, but his actions show that he is supporting the burmese, while he uses diction such as “evil” several times to describe natives. As a result of his hatred for the natives, Orwell has stated that he has thought about stabbing a bayonet through a Buddhist priest to receive joy. If he was truly all for the burmese, then he wouldn’t have described them with using such harsh diction further revealing Orwell’s complex tone.
Constantly, The author refers to the native people by using racist slurs throughout the essay demonstrating a complex tone.

Racism is evident in the essay, he belittles the Indians, when explaining his relief of the death of the native. “And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and gives me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant” (Orwell, 6.) The diction that Orwell uses to describe the natives, such as “coolie”, is an offensive racist insult, which discriminates the Indians. In this quotation, he says he’s glad that the native died, because it put him in the right with the British law, thus giving little importance to the Indian’s life. Additionally, Orwell constantly uses the appearance of the natives when referring to them, “He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie…”(Orwell, 2.) Throughout the essay, he always mentions the natives “yellow” skin or using harsh racist terms such as coolie. He previously relates the Indian race as helpless. Orwell uses these racist slurs to belittle the natives and by doing so undermines his statement of being on the burmese

side.
Initially in the essay, Orwell is portrayed as an officer whom posses power and control, but explains how it was the burmese who in the end controlled him into killing the elephant further revealing his complex tone. He demonstrates his power struggle by saying “ Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd...but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.”(Orwell, 4.) He tries to prove that he has power over these natives. When Orwell refers to his race, white, he is associating this word with a connotative meaning of power and superiority over the natives. He also mentions that he was holding a gun, which also possess power and is used by the British to assert power authority. However, the next sentence his diction changes and he uses the words “absurd puppet”. When he says this, he loses all that power and control and just becomes a movable object that is used as entertainment, and the natives are the ones armed with the strings that are controlling him. The author wants to be seen as this police officer that has power and is in control, but also shows you in his retelling of the story the burmese influenced him into killing the elephant.
Consequently Orwell’s diction conveys the narrator’s tone of complexity towards the natives through his loyalties, his use of racist slurs, and his struggle with power and control. Contradictions that he makes between the natives and the british empire make his loyalties questionable and complex. The constant racist diction and connotative words used when describing the Indians undermines his statement of being all for the burmese. The author demonstrates his inner conflict with the natives, when explaining his lack of control over shooting the elephant. Orwell begins the essay stating he was for “...all for the burmese”, nevertheless the tone expressed through his diction showed that it was indeed complex.