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Orwell’s essay holds a place as the definitive anti-colonial piece of literature
How does shooting an elephant relate to imperialism
How does shooting an elephant relate to imperialism
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It was as big as an elephant. I am definite you have heard this many times and perhaps even used it yourself. It is used to normally describe a problem that others or you are in. This is ironic because in the short story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, Orwell describes three big problems, and messages that come with imperialism through a story about an elephant. Orwell sees these problems with imperialism. First he points out the hatred it brings upon innocent people. Secondly, he talks about peer pressure and its effects on people. Lastly, he talks about how cruel it was for the people being ruled and how selfish the people were that were ruling. Orwells first messages from the story Shooting an Elephant, is the hatred that it makes …show more content…
As a policeman he is supposed to take care of the people and make sure they are safe and also that the English people living there are safe. One day an elephant who had gotten must, a lack of water that makes them go crazy and ruin everything, is running through the town causing great destruction. Orwell goes to check it out to see if the people are safe. He is going along until he sees that the elephant has killed someone and he gets the nerves and calls for an elephant gun. In doing this he excites all the village people, they are under the impression that he is going to shoot this elephant. Orwell doesn’t want to shoot this magnificent creature, but when he finds it, he had no other choice. “I was not thinking of my own skin, only the watchful yellow faces behind”. Orwell is so worried about what the people are going to think that he ignores what he thinks and kills the elephant anyway. Why he was worried about the opinion of the people that hate him? I don’t know. It happens all the time though; even in modern society we bend to the people we despise the most. People are funny in that sense. Orwell is telling us the great pressure that we will all fill in our life sooner or later, and he is trying to give us courage to follow our hearts, because they know what’s best a majority of the
In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is the officer of the town in the time period of Imperialism. In the beginning of the story Orwell shows the readers that despite him being an officer, he didn’t have much credibility. Orwell states, “When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter.” (p. 229.) Orwell also describes further the hate the people had for him in the town and mentions that the people continuously treated him in a disrespectful manner. Throughout the story it is reported to Orwell
Throughout the story, Orwell described how he was heavily pressured by the Burmese into shooting an elephant, stating that he became "... an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind" (Capote 583). Through Orwell's diction it became known that Orwell was hated by the majority of his residing village since he upheld the position of a sub divisional police officer for the British Raj in colonial Burma. Orwell was driven to killing the animal out of desperation of the public dropping all forms of hatred towards him. Although killing the elephant was against his will, Orwell went through with the deed earning a new profound identity known as the elephant
Initially, in the text Elephant, by Orwell, the speaker, who is actually a younger Orwell back when he was a policeman for England stationed in Burma, is faced with the decision to shoot an elephant that is running around like crazy, destroying everything because it is in must, or in heat. Although the elephant is destroying things, it is also a very important animal to the people of Burma, because they use it for farming, and other things. The thing that really messes Orwell up is the fact that there is peer pressure mixed into his feelings. The other police officers believe that killing the elephant is the ri...
“Shooting an Elephant” focuses on society by pressure. In “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell is pressured by the native people to shoot and kill the elephant, even though the elephant is no longer harmless. In the beginning of the essay, the natives repeatedly attack Orwell every day. When the elephant goes insane, the natives go to Orwell for help. The natives were constantly pressuring Orwell as he said, “For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the “natives,” and so in every crisis he has got to do what the “natives” expect of him” (Orwell par. 7). Orwell is pressured by society to do the opposite of what he feels is morally
When he finial find the elephant Orwell say “I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” But when he lays his eyes on the crowd he changes his stance to “but I did not want to shoot the elephant.”(Orwell 199). He felt guilty for shooting the elephant when he describe that the elephant worth more alive than dead, but despite the many reason not to shoot the elephant, he took a shot. Orwell describes “when I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick …I fired again into the same spot…I fired a third time. That was the shot that did it for him.”(199) the shooting of the elephant represent the Burma people trying to stay alive and over powering by the
In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell utilises figurative language to convey his purpose of discussing the dangers of societal influences on others. “Shooting an Elephant” illustrates a corrupted town and the inhumane acts of the people living there, as shown through Orwell’s use of metaphor, simile, and oxymoron. The use of this figurative language aids in amplifying the monstrous acts of the people.
Some two thousand Burmese were trailing right behind Police Officer Orwell, expecting to get vengeance for the man that the elephant killed. Orwell is first pressured just by their mere presence. Only a few moments pass before Orwell comes to terms with what he thinks is the best alternative as he stated, “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” (327) In addition, he felt subjected to shoot the animal; the Burmese were finally supporting him, and he couldn 't give that up even if that meant doing something against his better
He is not well liked by the local people and states secretly that he is all for the Burman people, and that he opposes the British’s implications. During his time there, an elephant in ‘must’ starts rampaging through the colonization. There is not much responsibility Orwell undertakes until the elephant kills a man. At that point, he decides to pursue the elephant. After his tracking, he finds the elephant and notes that it was peacefully eating and had a sort of “grandmotherly air” with it. He does not feel the need to confront the elephant anymore, until he sees the locals waiting for him to take action. He reluctantly calls for a large rifle and shoots the now peaceful beast. The elephant does not die right away, and even after Orwell has fired multiple rounds into it, the animal continues to suffer in pain. Orwell cannot bare the sight of it, and walks away feeling as though he has just murdered such a gentle creature. At the end of the story, it is revealed that Orwell acted the way he did because he wanted to save face with the Burman people and with the Imperialists. He was acting in accordance to what he believed others would want him to do, and not thinking with his own conscious. He was carelessly and blindly following the chain of command, without a second
In this story ,Orwell is taking part in imperialism by proving his power and dignity to the natives presenting imperialism metaphorically through the use of animals. He is using the elephant as a symbol of imperialism representing power as an untamed animal that has control over the village. He uses a large and very powerful animal to represent a significant metaphor for imperialism.. In doing so he leads to the understanding that the power behind imperialism is only as strong as its dominant rulers. Orwell?s moral values are challenged in many different ways, ironically enough while he too was the oppressor. He is faced with a very important decision of whether or not he should shoot the elephant. If he does so, he will be a hero to his people. In turn, he would be giving in to the imperial force behind the elephant that he finds so unjust and evil. If he lets the elephant go free and unharmed the natives will laugh at him and make him feel inferior for not being able to protect the...
The symbolic story in the Shooting an Elephant is an attack towards imperialism. Orwell presents the ironic truth that imperialism benefits neither the imperialist nor the countries they colonize. It is perhaps sad to see that men were once willing to buy in to the fraudulent and ephemeral glory that imperialism have offered. Hopefully, men have learned their lessons and no other animal will be sacrificed for men's greed.
Orwell is a very complex man, he begins to contradict himself by saying he hates what imperialism does but chooses to work for that government. Even though he states that he hated his job, his actions show imperialism. When having the choice to kill or not to kill the elephant, he chose death. This here specifies how imperialism took over; oddly enough not by the government but by the people. The people staring and waiting for him to ki...
Orwell might also be trying to get the idea that if a person has absolute power and he becomes corrupt, the whole nation is ruined because that tyrant controls everything.
He describes, “I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro” (60). He is dealing with the internal conflicts of who he should align with: himself, the British, or the Burmese. If he were to acknowledge his beliefs and align with himself, he could be the start of an uprise. Surely, others would follow. He even confirms his “thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny” and says, “Ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you catch him off duty,” referring to the hatred of the English empire (58). By expressing his dislike for the British, Orwell is finally attempting to stand up for his beliefs. The fact that his character is unable to execute his beliefs, though, highlights him trying to not look foolish in the presence of others. Clearly, he is in an unbearable circle of self-deprecation and doubt. By the end of the narrative, Orwell’s character regrets his decision to shoot the elephant. This ultimately represents Orwell’s uncertainty as he goes through life. He, like all of us, is struggling to predict which path is the best for him to go down as he ventures through his existence. Because of this, his actions for shooting the elephant are justified. He is just trying to accomplish all that he can while simultaneously dealing with his own questions of identity. This allows Orwell to be seen as a humble individual who is just trying
The main gist of “Shooting an Elephant” feels like it is asking for an opinion on Orwell’s actions, whether him shooting the elephant was right or wrong. The main theme of the essay is based on the idea that many of our actions are influenced by other people , especially if we are insecure about what we are doing. This idea was expressed through the different literary features that he used including the use of tone, voice, mood and characterization. The tone of voice within Orwell’s essay is reflective because he is explaining a past experience by using words “like at that age”, and “I did not then know” . The essay is written in the first person so this makes it seem like the voice of this essay belongs to Orwell himself; however, Orwell may have written about someone else, but choosing the first person makes the story sound more personal, which also makes it easier for the audience to relate it to their own experiences.
In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell faces many different conflicts, including internal and external conflicts. Not only does he faces these conflicts, he is also faced with an enormous situation. In the situation, he is the one that is responsible for determining the outcome. He notices that the different decisions have different consequences. He is basically put in a situation where he has to decide which consequence he would rather deal with.