Chris Knox

Professor Dollieslager

English 111-24W

10 Dec 2016

 

Shooting an Elephant

During his time in India, George Orwell published a story in 1936 describing how an encounter with an elephant changed his life. George was a police officer in the town of Moulmein, a British imperialist controlled town of Burma. The people of Moulmein did not trust the British rule and in turn did not trust him.  George was aware of the towns mistrust for him but couldn’t admit that he had the same views of the British rule as they did. This lack of trust pitted the townsfolk against George, often resulting in derogatory jeers being yelled at him and because of this, he hated his job. (George Orwell)

           

One day, George received a phone call of a rampaging elephant terrorizing the town. He then went out to investigate. During his investigating, he was alerted by the screams of the people which lead him to a dead body. This body was of a local man that had been killed by the elephant.  He learned that the elephant had been spotted in a nearby field. George started off towards the field, but now a crowd had gathered to follow him. He arrived at the field with a now huge crowd behind him and spotted the elephant standing and grazing. It is at this point that George is faced with the decision to kill or not kill the elephant. On one hand, the elephant is just standing in a field eating and more likely won’t harm anyone if he is avoided. On the other hand, the crowd expects him to kill the elephant and if he does not he would be seen as a coward. For George there was only one option, He shot the elephant.  (George Orwell) It was during this time that he saw the British imperialistic rule for what it really is, oppression. He also noted that it wasn’t just the people of Burma that were being oppressed, but also in the act of oppressing you will become oppressed. This dramatic period of Georges life was very influenced the rest of his career.

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

 

Orwell, George. "Shooting An Elephant." The Literature Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov.2016.  < http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/>.