Shooting And Elephant

Lower Burma, also known as Myanmar, was a country in Asia, that at the moment was being taken over by the mean, powerful, cruel, British Empire. George Orwell, the writer of Shooting and Elephant, was a “sub-divisional police officer of the town”(1). Being an authority of the town, Moulmein, ment “[he] was an obvious target” (1). The narrator was often jeered at, due to the fact he was a European. He often faced many difficult tasks that he was obligated to perform, despite his beliefs. He was “hated by large numbers of people” (1), therefore when he was put in a position to go beyond his beliefs, he was stuck in the situation of “do I, or do I not.” One morning, the narrator was called in due to “an elephant [that was] ravaging the
He decides to “test the elephant's behavior” (3). In his mind, if the elephant charged, he could shoot, but he consciously knew, “[he] was going to do no such thing” (3). After seeing the elephant not making a move, he could not stand the humiliation any longer, and “only had one alternative” (3). The conflict we once had was about to come to an conclusion. The narrator being buried in mud, which is a symbolism for his life and how sticky the situation was; sorrowfully pulls the trigger, after deciding where the best place upon the body would be to murder the elephant. First shoot, second shoot, third shoot, what felt like a lifetime for the narrator, the elephant was dead. The setting sets the tone of the essay, giving you an idea of how the Burmese people lived. Another technique is imagery, which is a visual description. When describing how innocent the elephant seemed he used imagery,”elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow” (3). The narrator uses many symbolism also. The gun, is a representation of the British Empire and the power they have within the town of Moulmein. The gunshots, all three, represents the damage the British Empire keeps doing to the