Shooting an Elephant
“Shooting an Elephant” Response
Orwell did not get along with the Burmese, nor did he like them because they would make fun of him and enjoyed insulting him while on duty. As for the British Raj, he felt as if the Raj was a cruel and aggressive government ruler and that his hatred towards him was so great that he would “drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts.” (pg.3). Therefore Orwell being a white man has a great conflict with the Burmese. In paragraph 2, he began to talk about how the British Empire was dying and that he did not even know it since he was not as educated as most. His job was basically “the dirty work of the Empire” (pg.3) and that since this was the case, he rarely heard news about the empire. In Orwell’s experience of the government I believe he learned that even though he may be a police officer, the Burmese people will not treat him with authority unless they are in need of help, as was shown with the elephant accident. The people would treat him terribly until they were in of his help and then they looked to him as a hero for that brief moment. He didn’t want to shoot the elephant since he could tell it was a working elephant. He explained that shooting it would be “comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery”. They obviously held great pride in the working elephants and did not want them harmed. The Burmese wanted Orwell to kill this elephant since it destroyed a bamboo hut, eaten the stock at the fruit stand, killed a cow, and had turned over a van. The elephant had basically torn part of the town apart and the Burmese people were not happy with it and wanted it dead. The statement “a tyrant wears a mask, and his face grows to fit in it”(pg.6) that he says means that since he has this job of being a police officer and has to protect these people, he must then fulfill his duties by killing this elephant which has come and put fear in these people. When Orwell was talking about the older
Orwell did not get along with the Burmese, nor did he like them because they would make fun of him and enjoyed insulting him while on duty. As for the British Raj, he felt as if the Raj was a cruel and aggressive government ruler and that his hatred towards him was so great that he would “drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s guts.” (pg.3). Therefore Orwell being a white man has a great conflict with the Burmese. In paragraph 2, he began to talk about how the British Empire was dying and that he did not even know it since he was not as educated as most. His job was basically “the dirty work of the Empire” (pg.3) and that since this was the case, he rarely heard news about the empire. In Orwell’s experience of the government I believe he learned that even though he may be a police officer, the Burmese people will not treat him with authority unless they are in need of help, as was shown with the elephant accident. The people would treat him terribly until they were in of his help and then they looked to him as a hero for that brief moment. He didn’t want to shoot the elephant since he could tell it was a working elephant. He explained that shooting it would be “comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery”. They obviously held great pride in the working elephants and did not want them harmed. The Burmese wanted Orwell to kill this elephant since it destroyed a bamboo hut, eaten the stock at the fruit stand, killed a cow, and had turned over a van. The elephant had basically torn part of the town apart and the Burmese people were not happy with it and wanted it dead. The statement “a tyrant wears a mask, and his face grows to fit in it”(pg.6) that he says means that since he has this job of being a police officer and has to protect these people, he must then fulfill his duties by killing this elephant which has come and put fear in these people. When Orwell was talking about the older