Summary Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

Orwell’s autobiographical account of shooting and eventually killing an elephant presents the animal and its death sympathetically as it died a slow, painful death. Through the language, the author evokes sympathy towards the elephant and a slightly more complex feeling towards the author who, although he kills the elephant, suffers inwardly during the process and appears to be affected by the Burman crowd’s greed to strip the carcass.

In the society Orwell lived in, hunting was common amongst gentlemen and is less challenged morally. This is revealed by “one never does…” The use of this inclusive pronoun brings the reader to a circle of experienced hunters and indicates Orwell’s assumption of the reader’s shared values. However this does
not justify the killing of the elephant due to the emphasis of the long suffering of the animal. This implies that Orwell feels although there is no problem in hunting and shooting animals, this experience of this elephant’s death remained with him. Therefore he presents the elephant as gentle and noble and its death as shocking and long drawn out.

Written in the first person, the author is able to convey his feelings and thoughts but avoids sympathy or justification for himself as he never mentions his feelings directly.
Through the eyes of the author, the “agony” of the dying elephant is emphasized and how unbearable it is for him to watch the elephant die. He hears the “tortured gasps” of the elephant as “dreadful”. Where the adjective “tortured” connotes great pain caused deliberately. Sympathy for the elephant is evident as he refers to the elephant as “he” as opposed to “it”. This use of the personal pronoun personalizes the elephant and suggests Orwell realizes the elephant was more than an object of
sport.

The startling opening perspective presents the elephant as a passive victim and the increasingly closer perspective to the dying animal increases sympathy for the elephant further. Right at the beginning, the perspective is down the barrel of the gun pointing at the defenseless elephant: a sitting duck. This emphasizes the evil of the deed and explains why Orwell is almost ashamed that he could not kill the elephant with a single clean shot. As the perspective gets closer, the author focuses more on details until the reader can see the elephant’s “pale pink throat”. The connotation of the color pink is a pastel softness, like a vulnerable baby. The reader experiences how passive and in pain the elephant was right up close. Although fighting to stay alive, the wounded animal made no attempt to attack the hunter. The closer Orwell gets to the elephant, the more desperate he is to kill it. This portrays the elephant as suffering within every step of the author and evokes more sympathy from the reader. Structurally the perspective withdraws away from the elephant at the end which emphasizes the death of the animal as too painful to be seen further. Reporting the elephant’s death second hand makes it even more ghastly.

The tone and pace of this passage reveal the author’s intentions.
When the shot is fired, the sentences are short and straight forward but longer sentences are used to emphasize the death of the elephant. This is effective in portraying the elephant’s death as slow, dragging and painful. The increasingly strong images of pain, allow the reader to feel the impact of the elephant’s death slowly building and how Orwell is reluctant to watch the elephant suffer. The more determined the author is to end the agony, the more powerless he is as his bullets are ineffectual. He eventually “could not stand it any longer and went away” unlike the Burmans. His departure reveals him as too horrified and the distancing perspective is conveyed by the fact that he is only told how much longer the elephant
suffered.

The contrast between the Burman crowd and the author’s attitude towards the elephant is evident. The first thing he noticed was the “devilish roar of glee” from the Burmans. The connotations of devilish are maliciousness without reason. The abstract noun, “glee”, communicates jubilant joy. This combination effectively makes the reader think the Burmans as bloodthirsty and barbaric, they are anxious to take advantage of the death of the elephant. “Roar”, an example of onomatopoeia, has connotations of wild animals. In contrast to the onomatopoeia in “roar” and “bang”, loud brutal sounds, the more pained “gasp” is used to describe the sound of the elephant. The elephant is presented as slow and feeble as opposed to dynamic and powerful, suggested by the other two uses of onomatopoeia. In the end, the Burmans “stripped the elephant’s body almost to the bones.” The imagery and the verb “strip” emphasize the cruelty and inhumanity of the Burmans. “Strip” also suggests there was nothing left of the elephant as it was just bare bones making its death more horrible. This implies that the Burmans were the monstrous beasts that feast on the blood and physical sufferings of the elephant. Readers are provoked to ask if the elephant really deserved to die and Orwell is, by contrast, more horrified at its pain and realizes it was a gentle, noble creature.

It is in human nature to side with the powerless. The elephant is portrayed as “powerless to move and yet powerless to die.” The repeated use of “powerless” within one sentence emphasizes the inevitable end the elephant is undergoing. The author uses a paradox to dramatize this. The elephant appears to become bigger and greater as it dies. The more the author fires at the elephant, the more ineffectual the bullets are. After the third shot, the elephant went from “sagging” to be “in rising” as it collapses. “Sagging” is also an unaggressive verb and being present continuous draws out the action unbearably. The metaphor, “tower upwards”, presents the image of a mighty and unbreakable presence. The similes, “like a huge rock” and “like a tree” portrays the elephant as even bigger. It eventually seemed to “shake the ground” as it falls bringing Orwell down with it. Both the author and the elephant are at the mercy of the impact while the Burmans are presented as eager to race towards the elephant. Burmans are presented as having the power of being gathered together. This shows that no single force, however great it may be can match the power of a mob. The author was “powerless” to end the elephant’s agony even when shots are fired at its heart: center of life. The elephant is presented as almost surreal and supernatural. It is in a “world remote from the damage” even though “thick blood welled out of him like red velvet.” The simile also takes the elephant away from the average world. “Red velvet” has connotations of royalty and nobility. The verb “well” is a gentle action which leads the image away from gruesomeness. These create sympathy towards the elephant further. These last bullets “seemed to make no impression” while the elephant continued to breathe as “steadily as the ticking of a clock.” The simile is effective in both portraying the strength of the elephant and characterizing the inner suffering of the author. Something that is never ending is conveyed by the slow measured “ticking of a clock.” Furthermore we are only conscious of the sound of clocks when everything is extremely silent and tense. It is almost as if the elephant will never die and its “tortured gasps” will haunt the author endlessly. From this central paradox and the use of sound, I think it is the author’s intention to make the reader feel this mighty elephant was made feeble by one bullet but it died without thrashing or groaning so it was far from being a threat.

Orwell’s recounting impresses us with this terrible memory of an experienced hunter’s ineffectual attempt to end the agony, even with a flood of bullets. How much it affected him is evident in the structure, tone, perspective and language through the emphasis of the suffering of the elephant.