George Orwell's Essay on his Life in Burma: "Shooting An Elephant" | EDSITEment George Orwell's Essay on his Life in Burma: "Shooting An Elephant" Tools The Lesson Introduction George Orwell confronted an Asian elephant like this one in the story recounted for this lesson plan. Credit: Image courtesy of American Memory at the Library of Congress. Eric A. Blair, better known by his pen name, George Orwell, is today best known for his last two novels, the anti-totalitarian works Animal Farm and 1984. He was also an accomplished and experienced essayist, writing on topics as diverse as anti-Semitism in England, Rudyard Kipling, Salvador Dali, and nationalism. Among his most powerful essays is the 1931 autobiographical essay "Shooting an Elephant," which Orwell based on his experience as a police officer in colonial Burma. This lesson plan is designed to help students read Orwell's essay both as a work of literature and as a window into the historical context about which it was written. This lesson plan may be used in both the History and Social Studies classroom and the Literature and Language Arts classroom.

Guiding Questions How does Orwell use literary tools such as symbolism, metaphor, irony and connotation to convey his main point, and what is that point? What is Orwell's argument or message, and what persuasive tools does he use to make it? Learning Objectives At the end of this lesson students will be able to Situate Orwell's essay within its appropriate cultural and historical context Distill and articulate the main points of this essay Discuss Orwell's use persuasive tools such as symbolism, metaphor and irony in this essay, and explain how he uses each of these tools to convey his argument or message. Background The essay "Shooting an Elephant" is set in a town in southern Burma during the colonial period. The country that is today Burma (Myanmar) was, during the time of Orwell's experiences in the colony, a province of India, itself a British colony. Prior to British intervention in the nineteenth century Burma was a sovereign kingdom.

After three wars between British forces and the Burmese, beginning with the First Anglo-Burmese War in 1824-26, followed by the Second Anglo-Burmese War of 1852, the country fell under British control after its defeat in the Third Anglo-Burmese War in 1885. Burma was subsumed under the administration of British India, becoming a province of that colony in 1886. It would remain an Indian province until it was granted the status of an individual British colony in 1937. Burma would gain its independence in January 1948. Eric A. Blair was born in Mohitari, India, in 1903 to parents in the Indian Civil Service. His education brought him to England where he would study at Eton College ("college" in England is roughly equivalent to a US high school). However, he was unable to win a scholarship to continue his studies at the university level. With few opportunities available, he would follow his parents' path into service for the British Empire, joining the Indian Imperial Police in 1922.

He would be stationed in what is today Burma (Myanmar) until 1927 when he would quit the imperial civil service in disgust. His experiences as a policeman for the Empire would form the basis of his early writing, including the novel Burmese Days as well as the essay "Shooting an Elephant." These experiences would continue to influence his world view and his writing until his death in 1950. Preparation Instructions Review George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant . The text is available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Center for the Liberal Arts . Familiarize yourself with the historical context of Orwell's story, as well as the biographical circumstances that placed him in Burma as a police officer. Additional information on Burmese history , the British Empire in India and the biography of George Orwell can be accessed through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library . Review metaphor , imagery , irony , symbolism and connotative and denotative language. The definitions for each of these terms can be found through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library . Lesson Activities Ask students to read the history of British involvement in Burma available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library .

Introduce students to Eric Blair, the man who would take the pen name George Orwell. You may wish to do so by reading the background information above to the class, or by reading a short biography of the writer available through the EDSITEment-reviewed Internet Public Library . Explain that Orwell would spend five years in Burma as an Indian Imperial Police officer. This experience allowed him to see the workings of the British Empire on a daily and very personal level. Activity 2. The Reluctant Imperialist Ask students to read George Orwell's essay " Shooting an Elephant " available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Center for the Liberal Arts . Ask students to take notes as they read of their first impressions, questions that may arise, or their reactions to the story. Ask them to also note any metaphors, symbolism or examples of irony in the text. Ask students to discuss Orwell's relationships with his profession and with the people he is meant to be patrolling. Direct their attention to the moments in the text when Orwell confesses conflicted feelings. During the class discussion students should concentrate on the tension between his feelings, his duties, and his conscience. Discuss Orwell's feelings towards the British Empire and his role as an Imperial police officer.

Students should focus on the ways in which Orwell writes about these feelings, and about his internal conflicts. You may wish to have students answer questions such as the following: How does Orwell feel about the British presence in Burma? How does he feel about his job with the Indian Imperial police? What are some of the internal conflicts Orwell describes feeling in his role as a colonial police officer? How do you know? He wrote and published this essay a number of years after he had left the civil service. How does Orwell describe his feelings about the British Empire, and about his role in it, both at the time he took part in the incident described, and at the time of writing the essay, after having had the opportunity to reflect upon these experiences? Ask students to point to examples in the text which support their view. What did Orwell mean by the following sentence: It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism -- the real motives for which despotic governments act. Discuss the following passages and what they tell us about Orwell's conflicted feelings towards the project of empire and the people who have been colonized.

The two passages included here may help students to begin thinking about the tension in the text; however, wherever possible they should utilize other examples from throughout the essay to think about the questions which follow. All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically—and secretly, of course—I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos—all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt. But I could get nothing into perspective.

I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East… All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum*, upon the will of the prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty. . * In saecula saeculorum is a liturgical term meaning "for ever and ever". Discuss how Orwell writes about his conflicted feelings. Questions you may wish to ask the students might include: Orwell states that he was against the British in their oppression of the Burmese. However, Orwell himself was British, and in his role as a police officer he was part of the oppression he is speaking against.

How can he be against the British and their empire when he is a British officer of the empire? What does Orwell mean when he writes that he was "theoretically… all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors." Why does he use the word "theoretically" in this sentence, and what does he mean by it? How does this "theoretical" belief conflict with his actual feelings? Does he show empathy or sympathy for the Burmese in his description of this incident? Does he show a lack of sympathy? Both? Ask students to focus on the kind of language Orwell uses. How does he convey these feelings through his use of language? Does Orwell believe these conflicting feelings can be reconciled? Why or why not? What does he mean by "the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East"? Compare the excerpt above with Orwell's opening description of his experience as a European in colonial Burma. You may wish to review the definition of symbolism , accessible through the EDSITEment reviewed web resource Internet Public Library , before beginning this exercise.

Again, the two passages included here may help students to begin thinking about the tension in the text; however, they should utilize examples from throughout the essay to think about the questions which follow. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter. No one had the guts to raise a riot, but if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress. As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.

Knowing that Orwell had sympathy for the position of the Burmese under colonialism, how does it make you feel to read the description of the way in which he was treated as a policeman? Why do you think the Burmese insulted and laughed at him? The first sentence of this paragraph is "In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people- the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me." What does he mean when he says he was "important enough" to be hated? As a colonial police officer Orwell was both a visible and accessible symbol to many Burmese. What did he symbolize to the Burmese? Orwell was unhappy and angry in his position as a colonial police officer. Why? At whom was his anger directed? What did the Burmese symbolize to Orwell? Activity 3.

The Price of Saving Face Orwell states "As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him." Later he says "… I did not want to shoot the elephant." Despite feeling that he ought not take this course of action, and feeling that he wished not to take this course, he also feels compelled to shoot the animal. In this activity students will be asked to discuss the reasons why Orwell felt he had to kill the elephant. Ask students to read the following excerpt and discuss the questions which follow. It was perfectly clear to me what I ought to do. I ought to walk up to within, say, twenty-five yards of the elephant and test his behavior. If he charged, I could shoot; if he took no notice of me, it would be safe to leave him until the mahout came back. But also I knew that I was going to do no such thing. I was a poor shot with a rifle and the ground was soft mud into which one would sink at every step. If the elephant charged and I missed him, I should have about as much chance as a toad under a steam-roller. But even then I was not thinking particularly of my own skin, only the watchful yellow faces behind.

For at that moment, with the crowd watching me, I was not afraid in the ordinary sense, as I would have been if I had been alone … The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill. And if that happened it was quite probably that some of them would laugh. That would never do. Orwell repeatedly states in the text that he does not want to shoot the elephant. In addition, by the time that he has found the elephant, the animal has become calm and has ceased to be an immediate danger. Despite this, Orwell feels compelled to execute the creature. Why? Orwell makes it clear in this essay that he was not a particularly talented rifleman. In the excerpt above he explains that by attempting to shoot the elephant he was putting himself into grave danger. But it is not a fear for his "own skin" which compels him to go through with this course of action. Instead, it was a fear outside of "the ordinary sense." What did Orwell fear? In colonial Burma a small number of British civil servants, officers and military personnel were vastly outnumbered by their colonial subjects.

They were able to maintain control, in part, because they possessed superior firepower -- a point made clear when Orwell states that the "Burmese population had no weapons and were quite helpless against (the elephant)." Yet, Orwell's description of the relationship between the Burmese and Europeans indicates that the division of power was not necessarily that simple. How did the Burmese resist their colonial masters through non-violent means? Ask students to show examples from the text to support their ideas. Ask students to explain how they would feel and what they would do were they in Orwell's position. Activity 4. Reading Between the Lines Ask students to read the following passages from the essay, which they should then use as a jumping off point for answering the following questions. Answers may be supplemented with other examples from the text. You may wish to review the definitions of metaphor , irony , and connotation and denotation that are available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library before asking students the questions which follow. Metaphor But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd… They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.

They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd—seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it ...

In this passage Orwell uses a series of metaphors: "seemingly the lead actor," "an absurd puppet," "he wears a mask," "a conjurer about to perform a trick." as well as comparing the colonial official to a "posing dummy." Ask students to examine this series of metaphors individually as well as collectively in order to find the overarching metaphor for the entire incident. If Orwell is "seemingly the lead actor," who is the audience? What is the 'part' he is playing? If he is "an absurd puppet," then who is the puppeteer? Does Orwell as the puppet have only one person or group pulling his strings, or is there more than one puppet master? How are the metaphors of the "absurd puppet" and the "posing dummy" similar? How does his description of himself seemingly the lead actor make this metaphor similar to the "absurd puppet" of the next phrase? How is Orwell's description of the colonial official as 'wearing a mask' similar to his own part in this situation as the "lead actor"? Each of these metaphors has a theatrical basis.

In the following paragraph he even states: "The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats." What is the 'theater' in which this 'scene' is being 'played'? What is the 'play'? How does Orwell use metaphors in order to describe a people and a situation geographically and culturally unfamiliar understandable to his readers? Irony …The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do. When irony is employed by a writer the true intent of his or her words is covered up or even contradicted by the words that are used. Where is irony employed in this excerpt, and what is Orwell's true intent? The use of irony often also presumes there being two audiences who will read or hear the delivery of the ironic phrase differently. One audience will hear only the literal meaning of the words, while another audience will hear the intent that lies beneath.

Who are the two audiences to whom Orwell is speaking? Connotation and Denotation In this section a series of sentences and phrases will be supplied which should provide examples for students to discuss the differences between the connotative and denotative meanings. Explain that denotative meanings are generally the literal meaning of the word, while connotative meanings are the "coloring" attached to words beyond their literal meaning. For example, the "army of people" Orwell refers to in his essay bring to mind not only a large group of people, but also a military and oppositional force. Ask students to explain the connotative and denotative meanings of the following words or phrases using this organizational chart , or its online interactive equivalent . One day something happened which in a roundabout way was enlightening. It was a poor quarter, a labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with palmleaf, winding all over the steep hillside. I marched down the hill, looking and feeling a fool, with the rifle over my shoulder and an ever-growing army of people jostling at my heels. They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick.

They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. Activity 5. Persuasive Perspectives Orwell was both an accomplished and a prolific essayist whose work covered a large number of topics. Many of his essays are written as third person commentaries or reviews, such as his "Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver's Travels." Orwell often chose to include himself in his essays, writing from a first person perspective, such as that employed in one of his most famous essays, "Politics and the English Language." In these works Orwell uses the first person perspective as a rhetorical strategy for supporting his argument. For example, he opens his 1946 essay "Politics and the English Language" with the following lines: Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent, and our language- so the argument runs- must inevitably share in the general collapse.

It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism … Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. In the paragraph which follows the above excerpt Orwell switches from the first person plural to the first person singular. By the second paragraph, however, he has already included his audience in his argument: we cannot do anything; our civilization is decadent. If we disagree with these sentiments, then we are ready to follow Orwell's argument over the following ten pages. While he does not use the inclusive "we" in "Shooting an Elephant," Orwell's use of the first person perspective is a rhetorical strategy. Discuss with students Orwell's decision to utilize the first person perspective rather than the third person perspective. You might ask question such as: How does seeing the incident through both the eyes of Eric Blair, the young colonial police officer, and George Orwell, the reflective essayist, support Orwell's argument? How does the story change by having the narrator not only present, but active, in the action of the story? How does the use of the first person perspective create a sense of sympathy or understanding for Orwell's position?

If time permits you may wish to ask students to re-write a section of "Shooting an Elephant" from a different perspective- such as in the third person. What is gained by this shift in perspective? What is lost? Assessment Ask students to write a short essay about one of the following two topics. Students should be sure to support their answers with examples from the text. Explain Orwell's use of language, and of rhetorical tools such as the first person perspective, metaphor, symbolism, irony, connotative and denotative language, in his commentary on the colonial project. How does Orwell use language to bring his audience into the immediacy of his world as a colonial police officer? The litany of examples of cruelties, insults and moral bankruptcy extend from the Buddhist priests, to the market sellers, the referee, the young British officials who declare the worth of the elephant far above that of an Indian coolie, to Orwell himself. While this essay contains anger and bitterness, is not simply a nihilistic diatribe. In what ways did the project of empire affect all parties involved in the shooting of an elephant? Extending The Lesson George Orwell wrote a second essay called A Hanging about his time as a police officer with the Indian Imperial Police.

In addition, Orwell's first novel, Burmese Days , give a fictionalized account of his time in Burma. The essay and the novel are available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library . George Orwell was not the only writer to discuss imperialism in his work. Another well known British author, Rudyard Kipling, also made imperialism the focus of some of his works, and the backdrop to many others. Both Orwell and Kipling were born in India to English parents (Kipling was born in Bombay in 1865), and both returned to India after their educations. Despite similar backgrounds their descriptions of empire and their ideas on the moral foundations of the project of empire were quite different. Have students investigate the views of empire by each of these authors through a comparative reading of Orwell's Shooting an Elephant and Kipling's famous poem urging American imperialism in the Philippines, The White Man's Burden . Kipling's poem is available on the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource, History Matters .

Selected EDSITEment Websites Animal Farm: George Orwell Biography | CliffsNotes George Orwell Biography Bookmark this page Manage My Reading List Son and Student George Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903, in Bengal, India, where his father, Richard Walmesley Blair, was an official in the Opium Department. Like many middle-to-upper-class men of his time, Richard Blair served the British Empire in its most prized and lucrative colony. In 1896, he met Ida Amble Limouzin, a British governess 20 years his junior, also living in India. After their marriage, the couple lived in Bengal for eight years, where they had two children: Marjorie (born 1898) and Eric. One year after Eric's birth, Ida moved back to England. For the next eight years, Eric would see his father for only three months in 1907, during one of his leaves. A third child, Avril, was born in 1908. Richard did not see his youngest child until his return to England when he retired from the Opium Department in 1912.

Eric spent his early boyhood in Henley, Oxfordshire, where he was an admittedly "chubby boy" who enjoyed walks in the Oxfordshire countryside. During this time, he began to vaguely understand his family's need to spend money to "keep up appearances" and the differences between members of different social classes: A friendship with a plumber's daughter was broken by his mother because she found the girl "too common." Not surprisingly, Eric was enthralled with books, notably Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels — a novel whose political satire would find its way into the books of George Orwell. In the summer of 1911, Eric entered into the defining phase of his childhood when he was admitted to St. Cyprian's, a preparatory school in Eastbourne with a reputation for readying boys for notable "public" (that is, private) schools. He began his first term there in 1912 and, until he left it five years later, almost wholly dreaded and hated the experience.

He was humiliated as a bed wetter, forced to memorize streams of dates and names, mocked by the wealthier boys, and led to believe that (in his own words), "[l]ife was more terrible, and I was more wicked, than I had imagined." The headmaster and his wife routinely reminded Eric that he was attending their school on a partial scholarship in order to shame him into behaving as they wished — this was another lesson to young Eric about the importance of social class and money. His years at St. Cyprian's are described at length in his essay, "Such, Such, Were the Joys … " (1952), and a reader of the essay can see that it was at St. Cyprian's that Orwell began to truly recognize the ways in which the strong belittle, control, and terrorize the weak — an idea that would later inform his political views and two most renowned novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. Although Orwell did enjoy some of his time at St.

Cyprians (collecting butterflies, for example), he yearned for the escape he finally achieved when his impressive grades earned him a scholarship at Wellington College, where he went in 1916. After spending only nine weeks at Wellington, however, Eric learned that he had been accepted to Eton — one of the nation's most prestigious schools — as a King's Scholar, whose education was almost entirely paid for by a scholarship. Eric's grades at Eton were unimpressive, although he did read a great deal, especially modern writers like Jack London, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw, who undoubtedly helped Eric shape his growing social consciousness. Eton was also the place where Eric began to write seriously, although what remains from this period is largely juvenilia. In December of 1921, Eric graduated from Eton, and although many Eton boys continued their studies at Oxford or Cambridge, Eric's marks were too low for him to receive a scholarship. His father (understandably) refused to pay for more schooling if Eric was not prepared to perform.

Facing an undecided future, the 18-year-old Eric Blair made a decision that would heighten his awareness of politics and the abuses of power done in the name of goodness and moral virtue. Officer and Tramp If Eric could not become a scholar, he knew that he had a good chance at becoming a servant of the Empire which had employed his father for 30 years. He announced to his parents that he wanted to become a police officer in India, and they approved. Inspired by the status of the position, the good wages he would earn, and perhaps by a desire to see remote parts of the world, Orwell took and passed the admission test for the Imperial Police. When asked to name the Indian province to which he would most like to be assigned, Eric requested Burma — a shocking answer for a man his age, since Burma was an often lawless place, high on crime but low on comforts. He had little experience as a soldier (save for the Officer Training Corps at Eton) and none in a police force. There was also a great amount of tension in Burma between the British and Indian populations.

Despite these apparent deterrents, in November, 1922, Eric arrived in Mandalay, Burma, to begin his new career as an Assistant Superintendent of Police in the Indian Imperial Police Force. While in Burma, Eric developed a great distaste for the British rule of India and for imperialism altogether. As a police officer, he was expected to maintain order in a population that detested him. In turn, he also sometimes hated those he was being paid to protect. As he describes in "Shooting an Elephant" (1936), imperialism destroys both the rulers and the ruled: "I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible." His experiences in Burma would find their way into his essay "A Hanging" (1931) and his first novel, Burmese Days (1934). He resigned from the Indian Imperial Police Force in 1928 and returned to England, a 25-five year-old determined to become a writer able to comment on his ever-growing political consciousness. Continued on next page...

Shooting an Elephant Summary - eNotes.com Shooting an Elephant Summary George Orwell Shooting an Elephant Summary In "Shooting an Elephant," Orwell draws on his own experiences of shooting an elephant in Burma. This elephant has been terrorizing a bazaar, but Orwell has serious misgivings about shooting it. He does it anyway, afraid of being considered weak. “Shooting an Elephant” summary key points: The narrator is a colonial policeman in British Burma who is disrespected by the local people. The narrator learns that an elephant is ravaging a bazaar. He arrives on the scene and prepares to kill the animal. The narrator realizes that unless he kills the elephant, the Burmese people will laugh at him. He shoots the elephant, who suffers an agonizing death. The official verdict vindicates the narrator’s shooting of the elephant. Download Study Guide Start Free Trial Start your free trial with eNotes to access more than 30,000 study guides. Get help with any book. link Link Based on Orwell’s experience with the Indian Imperial Police (1922-1927), “Shooting an Elephant” is set in Moulmein, in Lower Burma.

Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He says that, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell’s job, in this instance, is to respond to a report of the death of a local man who was killed by an elephant in musth. Orwell finds the man “lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to the side.” The corpse grins with “an expression of unendurable agony.” At this point, Orwell feels the collective will of the crowd urging him to shoot the elephant, but Orwell, knowing that the elephant is probably no longer dangerous, has no intention of shooting the elephant. He begins to anthropomorphize the elephant, changing the pronouns from “it” to “he,” referring to the elephant’s “preoccupied grandmotherly air,” and concluding that “it would be murder to shoot the elephant.” Despite Orwell’s aversion to shooting the elephant, he becomes suddenly aware that he will lose face and be humiliated if he does not shoot it. He therefore shoots the elephant.

The death itself is sustained in excruciating detail. After three shots, the elephant still does not die. Orwell fires his two remaining shots into the elephant’s heart. He sends someone to get his small rifle, then pours “shot after shot into his heart and down his throat.” Still, the elephant does not die. Orwell, unable to stand the elephant’s suffering and unable to watch and listen to it, goes away. The elephant, like the Burmese people, has become the unwitting victim of the British imperialist’s need to save face. No one is stronger for the experience. Orwell candidly depicts his unsympathetic actions both in shooting the elephant and in the aftermath, when he is among his fellow British police officers. He is relieved, he admits, that the coolie died, because it gave him a pretext for shooting the elephant. As far as his fellow officers are concerned, he did the right thing. As far as the natives are concerned, he saved face.

Yet Orwell concludes, “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” Throughout the essay, Orwell weaves his thesis about the effects of imperialism not only on the oppressed but on the oppressors, as well. He says that “every white man’s life in the East was one long struggle not to be laughed at,” that “when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys,” and that the imperialist “becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib.” Orwell’s essay, however, is more than one person’s riveting narrative about the beginning of an awareness. “Shooting an Elephant” captures a universal experience of going against one’s own humanity at the cost of a part of that humanity. Summary of Shooting an Elephant Essay - 281 Words George Orwell s Shooting an Elephant a Summary Essay ...George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant: a Summary George Orwell, from a first person narrative perspective of a British officer in Moulmein, Burma, writes an autobiographical essay titled Shooting an Elephant, confessing the inner conflict of a British police officer.

From his experience in British-ruled India in the early Twentieth Century, his essay shows feelings in the area and the East against Europe, and faults of the... 1123 Words | 3 Pages Summary of Shooting an Elephant Essay ...Narration: “Shooting an Elephant” To narrate is to describe an experience or a story that is linked in time. An effective narration “usually relates a sequence of events that led to new knowledge or had a notable outcome” (Aaron 60). George Orwell uses narration in “Shooting an Elephant” to support his thesis that imperialism is an immoral relationship of power because it compels the oppressor to act immorally to keep up appearances... 358 Words | 1 Pages Shooting An Elephant Summary Essay ...﻿Yasmin Corona Professor Besst English B50 15 September 2014 In the biography Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, he talks about how Europeans and himself are hated in Burma and talks about a few other things. George Orwell is a police officer in the country of Burma and is mistreated by the Burmese people. Orwell hates his job and imperialism for two reasons.

First off, he hates them because he does not support the government’s idea of imperialism.... 593 Words | 2 Pages Essay on Shooting an elephant summary and analyis ...An Analysis of “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell wrote his essay “Shooting an Elephant” about his job of responding to a report of the death of a man. The crime had been committed by an elephant in India and the body was badly beaten. At first Orwell wanted to kill the elephant, but then he realized it wasn’t dangerous. He began feeling compassion for the creature, but he must shoot it or he will be shamed... 304 Words | 3 Pages Shooting An Elephant Summary Essay ... Shooting an Elephant Summary: Set during the early 1900’s, the narrator recount his experiences as an English police officer stationed in Burma. He often describes that the British presence there were greatly despised and that he himself has been a target multiple times by the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (229) Being there to do the dirty work of the...

428 Words | 2 Pages Essay about Shooting an Elephant ...2012 Shooting an Elephant In society, we are sometimes obligated to make a decision on the spot, without looking back or looking at any options around us. It may mean you have to make a decision for a big group or have to make a decision for yourself; in this case, both of those options weren’t good ones for the man who killed the elephant. In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell narrates a story about his... 1098 Words | 3 Pages Shooting an Elephant Essay ...English 12. Evgeniya Belim . “Shooting an elephant” What would you do when faced with a crowd expected of you to act? In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell speaks of human behavior in a critical situation, under the pressure of several factors such as social, political, spiritual factors. The author told the story that took place in Moulmain, in Lower Burma with a sub-divisional police officer during the time when Burma was a British... 1373 Words | 3 Pages Shooting an Elephant Essay ...compels its followers to act irrationally in order to keep appearances.

Facing an impenetrable tyranny, the narrator, George Orwell, realizes his own oppression is not a product of his enemies but his own internal conflicts. In the essay “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell narrates his experience serving as a sub-divisional police officer for the British Empire in Moulmein, Burma. Orwell uses metaphors to represent his feelings on imperialism, intimate... 1120 Words | 3 Pages

Question: Between 1922 and 1927 Orwell lived in Burma – what was his job there?
Answer: Policeman