Shooting An Elephant Analysis

The essay is about an officer who must make a decision whether to shoot an elephant or not. From the very beginning the officer is saying that he is hated by a large number of people. He starts off as an honest man in my opinion. Will he continue being an honest man throughout the story? The officer was a subdivisional police officer of a town and the officer describes himself as an easy target. This officer even admits that he does not like his job. Like the officer, I too had a choice to make, whether to shoot an elephant or not. I shot the elephant just as the officer did too. The officer talks being stuck, being stuck between the hatred of the empire he served and the range against the evil spirited little beasts who tried making his job impossible. Then came the officers problem. The officer receives a call pertaining to an elephant that was on the loose. The elephant had broken out of the chains that were holding prison. The elephant had made his way to the Burmese town. The Burmese population had no weaponry to protect themselves from the elephant. While the elephant was in town, he had killed a man and destroyed some materialistic things along the town. By the
time the officer had made his over to the town in which the elephant was in, he saw the dead man. The officer then contacted a friend to borrow an elephant rifle. The officer had a crowd around him by this time and they were shouting excitedly because the officer was going to shoot the elephant.
The people around the officer had not shown much interest on the elephant until they knew the elephant was going to be shot. The people around just wanted the meat. The officer however, did not want to shoot the elephant, he had a rifle only to protect himself. But, peer pressure was getting to him. Crowds of people were following him waiting for him to kill the elephant. The officer then finds the elephant and knows deep inside that he does not want to shoot the elephant. The officer just wanted to watch him till the mahout came back and caught the elephant. No one liked the officer but since he had the rifle ready to kill, the people thought he was worth
watching. All the pressure around the officer gave him more reasons to kill the elephant that he did not want to kill. The officer felt that he had no other choice but to kill the elephant, he then shot the elephant but he did not die. The officer then shot him a second time but that shot still could not kill him. Then the officer shot him a third time. The third shot finally dropped the elephant but he was not dead. The elephant was breathing hard. The officer shot the elephant again with his two remaining shots. The two remaining shots were still not enough to kill the elephant and so, the officer got his small rifle and shot the elephant multiple times. That still, did not kill the elephant. The officer gave up and walked away. The elephant finally died a half hour after the officer left. I have shot an elephant just like the officer. A while back during my junior year of high school. I had a girlfriend and there was a student saying disturbing things about her. Like then officer, people around me were waiting for me to confront the guy. Like the officer had a choice to leave the elephant alone, I to had a choice to leave the student alone but many students including my girlfriend were on my back waiting for me to do something. I did not want to do something but then pressure lead me into confronting the student. I went up and pushed him and told him to stop. Inside of me I knew that the right thing to do was to wait till a teacher found out and for the teacher to take control just like the officer he could've waited till the owners elephant came and picked him up. The pressure around got the best of me. Like the officer, I too hoped that others did not think that I confronted the student so that I wouldn’t look like a fool but, that I did because it was “ the right thing to do”.