Shooting an elephant by i.s

“Shooting An Elephant”
George Orwell
“In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large
numbers of people” (Orwell).

George Orwell
 Eric Arthur Blair known better to the world as ‘George
Orwell’ was born at Midnapur (India) on 25th June 1903.
 His father was a Colonel in British Indian Army.
 He got his education at Eton.
 After completion of his graduation he joined as a
commissioned officer in Indian Imperial Police.
 He was posted in Burma(Myanmar) as an Assistant
Superintendent of Police.
 He resigned in 1927 and decided to become a writer.

George Orwell
 He resigned because he could not tolerate the
imperial tendency of England.
 In 1928 he moved to Paris.
 Fortune eluded him initially and in order to
survive he had to work as a ‘Dish-Washer’ in a
hotel.
 His first book 'Down and Out in Paris and
London’was published in 1933.
 He published the book under the pen name
‘George Orwell’.
 Besides ‘George Orwell’ he had another lesser
known pen-name. It was ‘John Freeman’.
 Orwell died on 21st January,1950 at the age of
46.

George Orwell
 What is Imperialism?
 By Imperialism we
mean a country
colonizes a land that it
does not own, and
exercises political and
financial dominance
over that country.
 Orwell is acclaimed as a
great novelist because of
his two dystopian novels—
‘1984’ and ‘Animal
Farm’.
 The term Orwellian has
been entered in the OED to
mean ‘any oppressive or
manipulative social
phenomenon opposed to a
free society’.

George Orwell
Orwell is one of the greatest English prose
writers of the 20th century. His work is
marked by keen intelligence and wit, a
profound awareness of social injustice, an
intense opposition to totalitarianism, a
passion for clarity in language, and a belief
in democratic socialism.

George Orwell

George Orwell
-:Context of the Story ‘Shooting an elephant’ :-
Burma was finally conquered by Britain in 1886 after three Anglo-
Burmese wars beginning in 1823. It became a separate
independent province of India in 1937. Burma got independence
on January,1948.
Orwell was posted at Moulmein as an Assistant Superintendent of
Police in 1922.
It was a period of intense anti-European sentiment in Burma.
Although sympathetic towards the Burmese natives, he was held as a
symbol of oppressive Imperial power.
He was subjected to constant baiting and jeering by the natives.
Being disgusted, he resigned in 1927.

George Orwell
Context of the story:- (2)
 During his stay at Moulmein, he was once invited to kill an
elephant reportedly gone mad.
 Orwell visited the place and found that the report was
fabricated and false.
 He did not like to kill the elephant as it would be a destruction
of a huge resource.
 But, the natives wanted him to be heroic.
 The first person narrator narrated the story how he was
compelled to kill the elephant against his conscience just not
to be leveled ’coward’.
 It was originally published as an addendum to his book
‘Burmese Days’[1936].

George Orwell
-:The story:-
In an early morning of March, a group of Burmese
natives along with a sub-Inspector of police came
to Orwell’s official Residence at Moulmein and
asked him to save them by killing a mad elephant
that had rampaged the village areas and killed a
cow and a coolie.
Orwell did not like killing big animals as they were
the resource of the nation.

George Orwell
People in lower Moulmein gathered to watch the shooting of the elephant.

George Orwell
 But, by virtue of his office, he was supposed to
oblige the request of the people and save them
from such a danger.
 So, he started towards the place of occurrence
along with the messengers.
 Reaching the spot, he saw a huge elephant grazing
in the paddy field without having any concern for
the people of the locality.

George Orwell
 It appeared quite normal.
 Orwell felt that the elephant was probably under
the spell of a ‘must’ that had made it mad
temporarily. But, it recovered and did not deserve
to be killed.
 It was not a wild elephant; it was a domesticated
elephant of a local trader.

George Orwell
 A crowd of nearly two thousand native Burmese
people gathered there to watch the ‘fun’ killing
and having a share of elephant’s flesh.
 They insisted Orwell to kill the elephant instantly.
 They had dual interests---to enjoy the fun of
watching how an elephant is killed and to get the
share of the remains of the dead elephant.
 In order to save his ‘heroic’ image Orwell had to
commit the most cowardly act of his life.

George Orwell
 He felt that a Sahib had got to act like a Sahib; he had
got to appear resolute, to know his own mind and do
definite things.
 So, he borrowed a ‘Rifle’ from one of his friends living
nearby. He felt that his personal one, an old .44
Winchester would be quite small to kill an elephant.
 The elephant was spotted grazing peacefully in a muddy
paddy field.
 He realized the danger of approaching the elephant. The
soil was muddy and slippery.

George Orwell
He realized that in case he fails, he would be
trampled and the natives would laugh in
seeing his grinning corpse.
He aimed straight at the elephant’s ear-hole
as it was sideways on. He did not hear the
bang of the rifle when he pulled the trigger
but heard the devilish roar of glee that went
up from the crowd.

George Orwell
Very soon an enormous senility seemed to
have settled upon him. He sagged flabbily
to his knees.
Orwell shot again aiming at the same spot.
The elephant did not collapse but climbed
with desperate slowness to his feet and stood
weakly upright, with legs sagging and head
drooping.

George Orwell
 Orwell fired a third shot. This was the shot that did for
him. The elephant trumpeted for the first and the only
time raising his trunk skywards like a tree.
 And then down he came, with a crash that had shaken the
ground.
 Orwell became very sorry in seeing the large beast
powerless to move and yet powerless to die. He fired his
remaining two shots to hasten the end. But nothing
happened. The thick blood welled out of him like red
velvet and the entire muddy ground became red.

George Orwell
 Orwell could not see the horrible scene anymore.
He took his own rifle and fired shot after shot at
his heart and down his throat.
 At every shot, the body of the elephant shook but
none of the shots could kill the elephant.
 Orwell found it unbearable to see the elephant in
such a condition and left the place with a
grievous soul.
 A sense of guilt and helplessness overpowered
him.

George Orwell
 There were endless discussions about Orwell’s action
afterwards.
 The Indians thought it a sign of the oppression of the colonial
rulers.
 The European opinion was divided.
 The older men said that Orwell was right.
 The younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant
for killing a coolie.
 Orwell himself felt that he had done it solely to avoid looking a
fool.
 He surrendered to the unholy desire of the mob just to keep the
image of a ‘Demy-god’ un-maligned.
 The European colonizers were held as ‘Demy-god’ by the
colonized natives.

George Orwell
Q. What reasons does Orwell give for shooting the elephant?
 Orwell shoots the elephant because the two thousand native
people standing behind him expect him to. They want vengeance
for the man it killed, the meat the carcass will provide, and the
entertainment of watching the shooting. “The people expected it
of me and I had got to do it” (7), he writes.
 There is an implication that if he decided not to shoot the
elephant, both he and the empire would suffer a loss of prestige,
but the main concern in Orwell’s mind is the “long struggle not to
be laughed at” (7). He is even afraid to “test” the animal’s mood
by going closer for fear it might attack and kill him before he
could shoot, thus giving the crowd a sight it would enjoy as much
as the slaughter of the beast.
www.enotes.com

George Orwell
 What does imperialism mean in the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by
George Orwell?
 "Shooting an Elephant," a story loosely based on George Orwell's personal
experience as a colonial official in Burma (modern-day Myanmar), a colony
in the British Empire. Burma was ruled by Great Britain, and as a
representative of the British, the narrator of the story is viewed with hatred
by the Burmese people. When a rogue elephant storms through the
bazaar, the narrator is called upon to shoot it, which he does not want to
do. The elephant, despite having accidently killed a man on his "rampage,"
is now calm and docile. But the narrator also does not want to appear weak
in front of the people, who might then question his authority. Through this
episode, Orwell is showing how imperialism corrupts people. It forces
colonial subjects to look to people they hate for justice, and forces the
imperial officers to commit morally repugnant acts. Above all, it shows that
the imperial relationship, at its heart, is based on violence.
 www.enotes.com

George Orwell
Q.What does the elephant symbolize in "Shooting an elephant?
Ans. In "Shooting an Elephant", the Elephant represents the working
man since in India and Burma, the elephant is a work animal. It
can also be seen to represent the role of the Burmese to the
colonial power - in this analogy; the Burmese would be the colonial
power over the elephant. At the end of the story, the animal takes
on definite human characteristics as it dies.
www.enotes.com

George Orwell
 Why does the author spend so much time narrating the death of the elephant?
 The death of the elephant is when the police officer feels the strongest guilt
inside. From the beginning, he knows he shouldn’t have killed the elephant, but
out of pressure and in order to not look like a fool to the two-thousand natives,
the police officer kills the elephant. But Orwell does not let the elephant die right
away. The elephant continues to live and brings great distaste to the police
officer. As a representative of British tyranny and imperialism to Burma, the police
officer almost loathes imperialism at this point. This is critical to Orwell’s main
theme, and in order to emphasize this point about imperialism, Orwell spends a
lot of time talking about its death. In order to underscore the police officer’s
distaste, Orwell creates his story so that the policeman leaves the scene, which
shows that his emotions are unstable. The policeman also finds out later that the
elephant died 30 minutes after he had left the scene. Overall, the death of the
elephant is the crux of the story where the policeman (or Orwell) criticizes
imperialism and himself for acting for Britain and to save his own face in the
community
 http://kevinp321.wordpress.com/shooting-an-elephant

George Orwell
Q. Orwell spends more time discussing the sociology of the event than
about the setting in which it occurs. Explain why doing so is
appropriate to his purpose.
 The setting of the story is not really important. Even though a
significant part of it is the historical content (that India was a British
colony), setting does not play a big role. The beginning paragraphs
explained enough about setting (about the British and the Indian
colony and how the policeman is not welcome). The real emphasis is on
the sociology of the community and the thoughts and feelings of the
British policeman. The way he feels about killing the elephant, and how
he is forced to shoot the elephant because of pressure from the
people. The main theme of this short story was about imperialism and
self-identity, not on setting. So the importance was more character-based,
rather than setting-based. Orwell wanted to state that
imperialism is not a good thing.

George Orwell
Q. What purpose does Orwell intend his narrative to serve?
 This story was primarily about a British man in India and his feelings about living in a conquered
territory. In a broader sense, Orwell touches upon the topic of imperialism and how he feels that
imperialism is a wrong thing. While living in India or Burma (to be more specific), a British colony, the
policeman feels out-of-place in the community. On a narrower sense, Orwell explains about a
policeman who is alienated by the Indians. The people don’t like him because he is British (there is an
anti-European sentiment), and they look at him in a disparaging way. Then the main conflict occurs
when there is an elephant that threatens the community. The policeman has to decide whether to kill or
save the elephant. The emphasis here is that Orwell explains about peer pressure, and how he is forced
to kill the elephant even though he doesn’t wish to, because thousands of people want him to kill the
elephant.
 Link.--
 http://kevinp321.wordpress.com/shooting-an-elephant/

George Orwell
 In what way is this essay a study in self-deception? Make specific
reference to the text to explain your answer.
 This story is a self-deception because the British policeman doesn’t really
want to kill the elephant; however, thousands of native people want him
to kill the elephant because they want revenge and compensation, and in
the end the policeman is forced to kill the elephant. In a way, the
policeman doesn’t want to become a loser or he does not want to let-down
the hopes of the natives. In order to do so, he has to persuade
himself that it is right to kill the elephant, even though deep inside him, he
knows that it is wrong, because the elephant is peaceful, and he doesn’t
have the owner’s permission and the elephant is peaceful. He states, “As
soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to
shoot him.” He, in part, knows that he is being deceived by the natives. He
states, “I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those
yellow faces behind.”Finally, in the end he states that it was better that the
“coolie” had died because he had justification for the killing of the
elephant-but we also know that deep inside him, there is still unrest and
uncertainty; therefore, the act of self-relieving is actually deception.

Shooting an elephant by i.s

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Shooting an elephant by i.s