Is society accounted for the actions of a single person? In the passage “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell I feel that Orwell was not justified for shooting the elephant but who was pressured into killing it by the power of the people. The people who George Orwell was supposed to be rulling, ruled him. Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant but the feelings he had and the way he was mistreated by the people of Burma he had no choice but to listen to them. “As soon as I saw the elephant perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him” When Orwell saw the elephant for the first time he knew that it wasn’t being dangerous, it was peacefully eating grass.
Orwell puts his own feelings aside to please the villagers and kills the elephant. Although Orwell thought he had legally done the right thing, he should have gone with his first instinct and observed the elephant in hopes that it was done with its rampage so that he could avoid killing the elephant, and if it weren’t, then Orwell would have been doing the right thing when shooting the elephant. George Orwell was a native of British India, 1903-1950. “George Orwell was a master of wit and satire, critically observing the politics of his time and prophetically envisioning the future. He devoted much of his life to various causes critical of capitalism, imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism, but in the end what he “most wanted to do is to make political writing into an art.“ (C.D Merriman) His real name was Eric Blair and George Orwell was his pen name.
Although Orwell brainstorms a logical plan in which he would test the elephant’s aggression prior to shooting it, he is unable to withstand the pressures of the natives who are surrounding him, wishing for the elephant to be put to wrest. While Orwell makes it evident to the reader the lack of power he feels although he is a British officer in a country controlled by Britain, he proves he will take any opportunity possible to gain a sense of power. With the eyes of thousands of natives on him, he is too intimidated to do anything other than what the crowd wants. In hopes of pleasing the demanding crowd, those who he is supposed to hold power over force him into action. By embracing his position of power, he is in turn controlled by the weak.
George Orwell’s essay ‘Shooting an Elephant’ presents remarkable insights of human mind and human nature. The story mainly focuses on Orwell’s behavior under peer pressure. “Should I shoot the elephant or should I not?” or “Will I lose face with these people if I don’t shoot the elephant?” First, Orwell expresses the pressure he feels as an Anglo- Indian, European imperial policeman in Burma. He would give in to what he thought the people of Burma wanted, not what he wanted. But secretly, he hated where he lived, he hated the government in Burma.
Nevertheless, all that is mentioned in the story is narrated by Orwell’s perspective. Orwell is normally known as an anti-imperialist writer but in the story, he makes us feel in different way because of his manner against native people who are exploited by Orwell’s country. Moreover, Orwell truly worked as an officer in Burma but he wrote the story as an older author. Because of the fact that he served Indian Imperial Police in Burma, his writings about colonialism have intense emotions and knowledge but surely not about colonized people’s pains. Selfishness can easily be felt in “Shooting an Elephant”.
Ironically, when the elephant begins to terrorize the village, the Burmese turn to Orwell because he is the only one capable of fixing the dilemma. He speaks of being the leader of the people in this situation, “but in reality [he] [is] only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of [the] yellow faces” (¶ 7). His agency is really just a façade of his submission to the Burmese. Symbolism of Orwell’s gun and the dead Indian also promote the concept of his submission to the Burmese as a façade. Orwell takes out a small gun, hardly large enough to damage an elephant, but due to its powerful sound, he deems it “useful in terrorem” (¶ 3).
The incident of shooting an elephant precipitates Orwell to insight further into the nature of imperialism, realizing how hollow and affected the declining British Raj is. Initially, Orwell doesn’t intend to shoot the elephant out of moral pity. But with thousands of expectant eyes fixed on him, he suddenly realizes he only has one choice to abandon morality and submit to the native’s expectation of a sahib. The moment he pulls the trigger, he is a victim of imperialism, losing his individual freedom of dependent judgment and choice for the sake of defending
I was very shocked by his gory decision to be honest. “As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear.” (George Orwell) this sentence is evidence that if the officer did not like his job so much he should not have made such a serious decision in killing the elephant if he knew it was not morally correct. The elephant was not doing anything wrong the officer knew that which was so frustrating for me to read. Then he not only shot the elephant once, but multiple times. I could not believe he could do such a thing given the fact he somewhat had a heart in the beginning.
He went through the trial and error process of making the right decisions while still trying to maintain an image and position of authority. Orwell’s moral values are challenged in different ways, ironically enough while he too was a tormentor. He was faced with an important decision when an elephant gets loose in the village. If he shot the elephant he would be a hero to the natives. If he decides to let the elephant go free and unharmed, he would be giving in to the imperial force behind the elephant which he finds so unfair and evil.
On the other hand, I am as a reader, I did not think that his act is fair mean that shot the elephant, at least I understand the condition that forcing to Orwell shot him. I can assert that history is considered its own conditions and situations. This sentences better to show at that time ‘’ I did not in the least want to shoot him…. I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had go to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.’’.