From Alice Walker's Story 'Shooting An Elephant'

Jerico Lua
Gabrielle Mitchell-Marell
English 101

Analogy Essay
We humans have co-habituated with animals for at least a millennia. Not only that but we have also claimed dominion over all things on this earth. Co-habituating and dominating. These two things seem at odds with each other. We have a strained, yet symbiotic relationship with these creatures. We need to nourish them, to nourish us. So what does that make these creatures? Commodities to be grown, traded and used or to be beloved companions? This dynamic makes telling what is right and wrong difficult. Since we are dealing with living creatures, do they have morals as we do? As the dominant species on earth, do we have an obligation to protect these animals, or do as we please with
From Alice Walker’s story, she recounts her experience watching Blue’s life. She recalls the feeling she had when she looked into the horse’s eyes. She described the feeling as one of horrible loneliness, which was shocking to her. Even a simple animal can convey so much emotion. She remembers when a new horse appeared on the property and Blue was happy. Time went by and the two horses became very close, and Blue’s new friend was eventually pregnant. Blue was content and happy, probably the happiest he has ever been; the look in his eyes conveyed the “this is itness”. As soon as this happened, the new pregnant horse was whisked away, it was all just for mating purposes. Blue was devastated, he thrashed around, and the author compares him to a person, filled with inconsolable grief. These people did not have the intent to provide this animal with companionship, they only wanted to breed another horse and conducted it in a purely business-like manner. They didn’t take into account the animal’s emotional wellbeing. Because from a business perspective, why should we care so much for a dispensable tool? The author draws a lot of parallels between animals and slaves,
Alice walker contemplates this, and as she eats her steak, she spat it out, realizing the cost this meal had to the animals themselves, she felt disgusted and could not take another bite of this morsel. Advertisements for food also warps what an animal stands for, and turns them into a symbol they don’t represent, like the “happy” smiling cows drawn on milk cartons. For George Orwell’s story, he tells of his time as a police officer in the British regime of Burma. He was the one who was forced to deal with the situation of the elephant. The elephant was chained up, which was nonchalantly mentioned, because this was a normal thing to do to an elephant. This sort of things seemed to happen often because when they break free, their attacks are described as a “must”; which I interpret as revenge against their human captors. When he recounted the details of the elephant’s attack, it only went after human property, it went after a bamboo house, livestock, and when a man jumped out of a van, it went and viciously attacked that too. It then went on to attack a human, whose corpse George Orwell had just found. The elephant then made its way to a