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.
When you read the essay it is clear that it describes the experience of an English police officer that is very unpopular in the city of Burma. He hates his job very much because of all the locals. He is a white man living in a city where the Britain’s conquered in the earlier years. This English narrator could maybe be George Norwell himself. But one day he is called out by another police officer in the town, because there is an aggressive elephant loose in the city.
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.
He understands that the will of the crowd demands the death of the elephant despite his unwillingness to shoot the animal. Conflict The narrator’s inner struggle of shooting an elephant, He has to choose between being laughed of and being seen as a fool or shooting an elephant which he does not intend to do. Style The essay exhibits a certain structure, which is very notable. That of meditation and action; it starts with reflection, tells part of the story, reflects further, offers its climax, and then ends with a final reflection. Broken up by the narrator’s reflections on the events he is remembering.
If someone were to break these unofficial rules they would no be longer trusted by their peers. One might say that these rules should not be applied in real life. These rules should definitely be applied our daily lives. By learning what these rules are about such as, no snitching, mind your own business and etc. These rules are plainly common sense and in reality they really are applied into our daily lives.
Orwell begins to show his inner conflict by stating how he feels about being a European imperial policeman. Orwell is an unhappy young policeman who lives in mental isolation. He hates British imperialism, he hates Burmese natives, and he hates his job. He is completely alone with his thoughts since he cannot share his idea that "imperialism was an evil thing"(pg.10) with his countrymen. Orwell sees the British rule as "an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down.
In the end Orwell reluctantly decides to shoot the elephant “solely to avoid looking a fool” (479) in front of the Burmese people. Living in Burma, Orwell tells the reader how the locals despise the European oppressors in their communities, jeering, spitting, and, mocking, in attempts to annoy and embarrass the British whenever possible. This hatred expressed in front of Orwell causes him equal animosity towards the Burmese people and his own country, Great Britain. Orwell feels the British are the oppressors saying at on point “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors,
Orwell goes on to explain, that his initial shot did not put the animal down, and after shooting multiple rounds into the animal it still took time for death to come. As tragic as the shooting, suffering, and death of the elephant can seem, they are not the pieces that makes up the foundation in Orwell’s story. Taking a deeper look, one will see that Orwell uses environment, animosity, and outside pressure as his foundational reasons in “Shooting an Elephant”. Orwell began his story with “In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people—the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me (Orwell 572). Orwell starts by communicating to the audience that at that particular time he finds himself in an unhappy place, not only a physical place, but a
The elephant was used as a display to the people that they should fear Orwell and his authority to intimidate the people. Evidence of imagery and similes were provided in the text to convey the author’s knowledge that doing the wrong thing will not create a better image in peoples’ eyes. The elephant was noted to demolish villagers’ houses, raid fruit stands, ate the stock, and brutally killed a man out of the excitement of escaping and breaking away from its owner. Looking closely at Orwell’s graphic use of imagery, he also uses a simile describing the body of the dead man. Orwell explains how people may be misled by the saying “the dead look peaceful” (Orwell 2) because most dead bodies he has seen look as if they die in agony.
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.