Shooting an Elephant
Rebecka Price Dollieslager English 111 April 15, 2015
George Orwell’s narration “Shooting an Elephant” is a detailed account of an event in his life that was a defining moment in his life in which he realizes how much he hates imperialism. At the time India was under the influence of the British Raj, a time in India when the British held power over their government. Orwell coming from England, as an officer of the oppression, was not very well liked by the indigenous people. During his time as an officer, he went to Burma, India. There happened an incident where an elephant started to rampage out of “must” and ended up trampling a man. Orwell then said he wanted to go to the elephant and see how the elephant would react to him. He then starts to almost manufacture a pressure that he feels that the natives want him to shoot the elephant because it's what they expect out of the English. Then in after a while he decided it best to avoid looking like a fool by continuously sending shots into the elephant, that was peacefully eating, despite not wanting to. Afterwards he walks away not wanting to watch it slowly shrivel up and die. He later found out it took the elephant half an hour to die and the villagers picked the corpse clean. He says killing the elephant gave him a good cover up, for many people believed he did it to avoid trouble with the Indians. The reason he gives, as the truth, for shooting the elephant was to avoid looking like a fool (Orwell).
Works Cited Orwell, George. "Work : Essays : Shooting an Elephant." // George Orwell // Www.k-1.com/Orwell. Web. 15 Apr. 2015. <http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/elephant.html>.