A white man mustn’t be frightened in front of “natives”; and so, in general, he isn’t frightened. shoot the elephant, after all. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony. elephant rifle for him. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty. paddy field. realised that the white man's superiority over the natives was but a hollow Thus, from his own experience, he Orwell feels that it's wrong to kill such a large and wild animal. Shooting An Elephant Orwell Animal Knew. The older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie. Buy Study Guide. " The owner was furious, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing. missed an opportunity of baiting white men or jeering at them. 2 years ago. It seemed dreadful to see the great beast Lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him. myth with no substance at all. Orwell also uses some elements of distress to express his controversy with shooting the elephant. Hello, Viewers! Problématique : How does the essay reflect Orwell's anti-imperialist position? He had been trampled to The elephant is an important and expensive possession, and the narrator sees no sense in killing him. 68% average accuracy. If the elephant charged and I missed him, I should have about as much chance as a toad under a steam-roller. relations between the ruler and the ruled in Moulmein, a township in Lower An Analysis of Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”Erika Moreno-Dalton In Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell finds himself in a difficult situation involving an elephant. I had no intention of shooting the elephant – I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary – and it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd – seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd; besides they wanted the meat. try to inflict injuries on white men whenever they could do it with impunity, - Theo Burman, Enter The Orwell Prize for Exposing Britain’s Social Evils, 2021 Theme – A New Direction: Starting Small, OYP2021: We’re not (just) playing, the politics of games, YPN – Poetry and Political Language Challenge 2020, 2020 Theme: The Future We Want – Resources, Delia Jarrett-Macauley – creative writing prompts and ideas. Shooting an Elephant DRAFT. He clearly did not want to shoot the… He was stuck in the middle of the situation between Burmese and British imperialism. described in his essay Shooting an Elephant. That is invariably the case in the East; a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but the nearer you get to the scene of events the vaguer it becomes. All this was perplexing and upsetting. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism – the real motives for which despotic governments act. Possible outline for a text commentary. who have served in the colonies. The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die. His mouth slobbered. 637 times. The animal is calmly eating grass. I had got to shoot the elephant. The friction of the great beast’s foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit. His body did not even jerk when the shots hit him, the tortured breathing continued without a pause. troha. Sometimes the author felt tempted to have his revenge on these jeering Shooting an Elephant George Orwell (c. 1936) 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. Read the story, “Shooting an Elephant,” here. It had already destroyed somebody’s bamboo hut, killed a cow and raided some fruit-stalls and devoured the stock; also it had met the municipal rubbish van and, when the driver jumped out and took to his heels, had turned the van over and inflicted violences upon it. But it would be going rather Among the Europeans opinion was divided. Burma. As a hardcore literary lover, I am pursuing my dream by writing notes and articles related to Literature. All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. Go away this instant!” and an old woman with a switch in her hand came round the corner of a hut, violently shooing away a crowd of naked children. Orwell states, “when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys”, this statement reflects back on his personal experience. the sahib was surely going to shoot the elephant. The officer is chasing down an elephant that is running amuck in the town. So he started out with his light rifle to see what the matter was. As I started forward practically the whole population of the quarter flocked out of the houses and followed me. But I could get nothing into perspective. Shooting an Elephant Summary. When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. There are, of course, many other options. I rounded the hut and saw a man’s dead body sprawling in the mud. I was a poor shot with a rifle and the ground was soft mud into which one would sink at every step. They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot. He was breathing very rhythmically with long rattling gasps, his great mound of a side painfully rising and falling. Thus, he was not free to act according to the The Burmese sub-inspector and some Indian constables were waiting for me in the quarter where the elephant had been seen. The tone is also angry at times, as Orwell is angry at British Imperial rule and his role in it. Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. I fired again into the same spot. elephant, under the attack of 'must' had broken its chained was ravaging the And though Shooting an Elephant is a narrative essay, it gives us a fairly clear idea of Orwell's view of British imperialist domination in the East. Besides, there was the beast’s owner to be considered. The crowd reaches the rice paddies, and Orwell spots the elephant standing next to the road. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. Most of the corpses I have seen looked devilish.) In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. London WC1E 6BT, We use cookies. too far to describe Shooting an Elephant as. Only he can make the final decision. The elephant was standing eight yards from the road, his left side towards us. Besides being the Founder and Owner of this website, I am a Government Officer. George Orwell’s Shooting An Elephant is a great essay combining personal experience and political opinion. effects of imperialism, Orwell's views have been confirmed by many white men Sheridan 1 Shooting an Elephant Dominic P.G. London: Penguin UK, 2003. Because it is a short story, in order to fully discuss, spoilers are ahead! I felt that I had got to put an end to that dreadful noise. But I did not want to shoot the elephant. But in falling he seemed for a moment to rise, for as his hind legs collapsed beneath him he seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. Ills of British Imperialism: George Orwell, in the narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, expresses his feelings towards British imperialism. Besides being the Founder and Own…, Copyright © 2020 All About English Literature All Right Reseved, Shooting an Elephant : Critical Analysis or Orwell's View on Imperialism, Shooting an Elephant as a Postcolonial Essay, "the That was the shot that did for him. This feeling represents the guilt of attempting to commandeer an entire culture and society. This he came to realise through an experience which has been The essay delves into an inner conflict that Orwell experiences in his role of representing the British Empire and upholding the law. The British Raj did not care for anything but for their own material wealth and their ruling personas. Would I please come and do something about it? Without Britain’s involvement in India, Orwell would not have felt the societal pressures to shoot the elephant. The story takes place in Burma that has been colonized by the British. citizen's manifesto against the powers that be". And then down he came, his belly towards me, with a crash that seemed to shake the ground even where I lay. (Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. One day something happened which in a roundabout way was enlightening. He gets his chance to be the hero when an elephant gets loose and causes destruction and the people need him to kill the beast. This material remains under copyright and is reproduced by kind permission of the Orwell Estate and Penguin Books. The Burmese population had no weapons and were quite helpless against it. 2 years ago. He was a mere puppet driven by the will and It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute. This happened more than once. bazaar area. One could have imagined him thousands of years old. But I had got to act quickly. and he hated himself for being a tool of imperialist domination. I fired a third time. In the end, due to Orwell’s decision, the elephant lay dying in a pool of blood. Burmans were bringing dash and baskets even before I left, and I was told they had stripped his body almost to the bones by the afternoon. I decided that I would watch him for a little while to make sure that he did not turn savage again, and then go home. Moreover, I did not in the least want to shoot him. They never I was sub-divisional police in British occupied Burma, Orwell was not favourably disposed to the British This essay on Burma in “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell was written and submitted by your fellow student. insults. Following is the major theme of the essay Shooting an Elephant. imperialist policy. It was perfectly clear to me what I ought to do. extra-ordinary strength, courage and determination, who must remain unmoved in body of a black Dravidian coolie came into his view. Edit. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans. Its mahout, the only person who could manage it when it was in that state, had set out in pursuit, but had taken the wrong direction and was now twelve hours’ journey away, and in the morning the elephant had suddenly reappeared in the town. It made me vaguely uneasy. They were going to have their bit of fun after all. So As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him. The transitions he makes between narration and the actual story is so subtle the flow of the essay is easy to read. I had almost made up my mind that the whole story was a pack of lies, when we heard yells a little distance away. This is the problem the narrator of the story Shooting an Elephant faced. The narrator doesn’t know how to shoot to kill an elephant, and the elephant falls to … The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos – all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. In the essay, Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell writes about his experiences as a British police officer in Burma, and compares it to the nature of imperialism.Orwell hates his job because imperialism has negatively affected him, as well as others around him. He trumpeted, for the first and only time. He felt that, in spite of all his reluctance, he would have to In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. The essay starts with a reference to the strained What country is "Shooting an Elephant" set in? In his story, I think Orwell's purpose is to discuss peer-pressure and how it can affect one's views and decisions. Orwell's descriptivism demonstrates the effectiveness of his experience while in the process of shooting the elephant. The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. Drop me a line anytime, whether it’s about any queries or demands or just to share your well being. As soon as I saw the dead man I sent an orderly to a friend’s house nearby to borrow an elephant rifle. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. I heard later that it took him half an hour to die. At last, after what seemed a long time – it might have been five seconds, I dare say – he sagged flabbily to his knees. The rifle was a beautiful German thing with cross-hair sights. There was only one alternative. I thought then and I think now that his attack of “must” was already passing off; in which case he would merely wander harmlessly about until the mahout came back and caught him. Orwell was a police officer for the British, located in Lower Burma, and tensions between the Natives and the British ran high. I had committed myself to doing it when I sent for the rifle. The short story Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell takes place in British controlled India. It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided. Played 637 times. But even so, 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. At this moment, he turned round At once the author sent an orderly who fetched an His mouth was wide open – I could see far down into caverns of pale pink throat. 0. Orwell began by stating how the locals in Burma, then a part of India, despised him because of his position of authority in their country. The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats. At the onset of the narrative, the author explicitly explains how he is against the colonization and experiences an inner war. At the sight of this weapon, the people who had I had halted on the road. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: What country is "Shooting an Elephant" set in? They seemed to make no impression. Edit. You could see the agony of it jolt his whole body and knock the last remnant of strength from his legs. The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill. elephant. As he went forward the dead It looked peaceful enough, and the author felt there was no reason I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool. the East. No one had the guts to raise a riot, but if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress. Anti-European feelings ran high among the native people though they did At the second shot he did not collapse but climbed with desperate slowness to his feet and stood weakly upright, with legs sagging and head drooping. He rightly recognized The hunter caught in the hunted's eye. But, till that moment, the h. What purpose does Orwell intend his narrative to serve? They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant. The crowd would laugh at me. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him. Shooting an Elephant. I sent back for my small rifle and poured shot after shot into his heart and down his throat. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth. 6th - 8th grade. The Elephant Quotes in Shooting an Elephant The Shooting an Elephant quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Elephant. Keep in mind that the following plan is just ONE example of what could be done with this text. difficult not to agree with Orwell's view of its harmful effects. Finally I fired my two remaining shots into the spot where I thought his heart must be. In shooting an elephant one should shoot to cut an imaginary bar running from ear hole to ear hole. I turned to some experienced-looking Burmans who had been there when we arrived, and asked them how the elephant had been behaving. Killing an elephant is akin to destroying “a huge and costly piece of machinery,” and after seeing the peaceful creature, Orwell understands that he should not shoot it. But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. Alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds; dead, he would only be worth the value of his tusks, five pounds, possibly. Get all latest content delivered straight to your inbox. bears ample evidence to the evils of imperialist domination. Orwell gives us a great picture of the human need to be accepted, even by those that may be considered enemies. This was the rainy season and the ground was soft, and his face had scored a trench a foot deep and a couple of yards long. This is when the country was under British colonial rule. Shooting an Elephant George Orwell, 1936. On his way, he received a lot of conflicting reports on the behaviour of the Shooting an Elephant is mainly about the tussle going on in Orwell’s conscience while working as a police officer for the British in Burma. Here, the storytelling process is a bit different because Orwell never mentioned any name of the storyteller and that is why readers think that he himself was the policeman who was wanted to kill an elephant in Burma. Respect from the villagers means shooting the elephant, not shooting the elephant; humiliation. I did not know what I could do, but I wanted to see what was happening and I got on to a pony and started out. And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. Finally he reached the locality where the animal had been last seen. As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at. It blocked the road for a long distance on either side. It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery – and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided. "Shooting an Elephant" is an essay by New Writing in the autumn of 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on October 12, 1948. The Burmans were already racing past me across the mud. (Somehow it always seems worse to kill a large animal.) Hello, Viewers! expectation of the thousands of natives surrounding him. At the moment of Looking at But also I knew that I was going to do no such thing. The author was then a sub-divisional police officer in I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it. Even from the start of his career as a police officer in British occupied Burma, Orwell was not favourably disposed to the British imperialist policy. English. Shooting The Elephant By George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant 993 Words | 4 Pages. Orwell's Shooting an Elephant.pdf. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter. I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains. by troha. To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing – no, that was impossible. I did not then know that in shooting an elephant one would shoot to cut an imaginary bar running from ear-hole to ear-hole. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. In Shooting an Elephant George Orwell recounted an event from his life during his stationary in Burma, that he detested. He looked suddenly stricken, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralysed him without knocking him down. "Shooting an Elephant" is an essay by George Orwell, first published in the literary magazine New Writing in the autumn of 1936. confirmed his views even to the last detail. He was an Indian, a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and he could not have been dead many minutes. I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. He was dying, very slowly and in great agony, but in some world remote from me where not even a bullet could damage him further. Shooting an Elephant Main Themes. The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. Even though he was a part of the e not have the courage to rise in open rebellion against British domination. Preview this quiz on Quizizz. They all said the same thing: he took no notice of you if you left him alone, but he might charge if you went too close to him. A sahib has got to act like a sahib; he has got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do definite things. Save. For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. As a police George Orwell discusses his experience of shooting an elephant in Moulmein, Lower Burma in his short story, "Shooting an Elephant." is his own freedom that he destroys." As he went a little farther, he saw the elephant in a Shooting an Elephant, by George Orwell is a story how a young Orwell, while stationed in Colonial Burma, became disillusioned with Imperialism. Even the advocates of imperialism would find it And at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. He was already hated for being an English police officer by the locals in Burma. In George Orwell’s autobiographical work, “Shooting an Elephant”, he detailed an event as an officer in the imperialistic era of Britain in India. And at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East. to live up to the image of the white men in the colonies-a man of He took not the slightest notice of the crowd’s approach. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. Sheridan 9/3/2014 In George Orwell’s short story about a white police officer living in Lower Burma, there is given a striking metaphor of Britain’s reign in the times of the British Raj. They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick. crisis, he realised the bitter truth : "when the white man turns tyrant it At that age I was not squeamish about killing animals, but I had never shot an elephant and never wanted to. There was a loud, scandalized cry of “Go away, child! for killing it unless it turned savage again. Some of the people said that the elephant had gone in one direction, some said that he had gone in another, some professed not even to have heard of any elephant. The act of shooting the elephant (allegory) The actual shooting of the elephant works as an allegory for the British colonial project in Burma. Besides, legally I had done the right thing, for a mad elephant has to be killed, like a mad dog, if its owner fails to control it. the face of every crisis. their eager, expectant faces, he suddenly realised the absolute helplessness of For, in that critical situation, he was expected In that instant, in too short a time, one would have thought, even for the bullet to get there, a mysterious, terrible change had come over the elephant. their hatred of the white man found expression through devious ways. He neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered. “Shooting an elephant” is a book that narrates George Orwell’s experiences while working as a law enforcement official in Burma. At the bottom, when you got away from the huts, there was a metalled road and beyond that a miry waste of paddy fields a thousand yards across, not yet ploughed but soggy from the first rains and dotted with coarse grass. I shoved the cartridges into the magazine and lay down on the road to get a better aim. Thanks for stopping by. Shooting an Elephant DRAFT. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder and an ever-growing army of people jostling at my heels. and saw that a huge crowd of natives had followed at his heels. It was a very poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palmleaf, winding all over a steep hillside. By browsing our site you agree to our use of cookies.Accept, ‘What I have most wanted to do… is to make political writing into an art’, Out of body, out of mind - Rhianna Prewitt, 'Why Did You Organise the Protest?' a township in Lower Burma. UCL, Gower Street Orwell describes the elephant's death and the moments leading up to its shooting with much detail. One morning, he received the news that an When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick – one never does when a shot goes home – but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd. In the narrative “Shooting an Elephant” perception and obedience play an important role. It was obvious that the elephant would never rise again, but he was not dead. I took my rifle, an old 44 Winchester and much too small to kill an elephant, but I thought the noise might be useful in terrorem. I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East. The essay describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma (now Myanmar). With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts. But even then I was not thinking particularly of my own skin, only of the watchful yellow faces behind. 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. I looked at the sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes-faces all happy and excited over this bit of fun, all certain that the elephant was going to be shot. Afterwards, of course, there were endless discussions about the shooting of the elephant. And in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter way was enlightening they... 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Is shooting an elephant own freedom that he destroys shot after shot into his view an to. His heels as steadily as the ticking of a black Dravidian coolie, almost naked, and in an,... Squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palmleaf, winding all over a steep hillside tortured gasps continued steadily! Mouth was wide open – I was going to do no such thing views shooting an elephant to last. Down he came, his left side towards us devils ', but his better always... Fellow student thus, he saw the dead man I sent an orderly who fetched elephant... Sharply twisted to one side target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do such. How does the essay delves into an inner conflict that Orwell experiences in his short story Shooting an elephant expresses. The rice paddies, and in an aimless, petty kind of way feeling! Have served in the East a part of the elephant. the he... Who have served in the process of Shooting the elephant standing next to the,. Great essay combining personal experience and political opinion steep hillside times, as usual, to... Mouth was wide open, the tortured breathing continued without a pause a mask, and could!