Similarities Between Shooting An Elephant And Salvation

This short story takes place in Moulmein, Burma and is about a police officer. The people in the town do not like him because he is a police officer from Europe. The town people would spit on him. One day he was called to the town bazaar to find an elephant that was going on a rampage. The locals were not helpful when he was trying find and stop the elephant. He then found the elephant with a killed coolie and sees that the elephant has culmed down. The officer was given the choice whether or not to shoot the elephant. There was a large crowed gathered behind him and he did not want to look weak or like a fool. He then decided to kill the elephant. He shot it in the head, but the elephant did not die. He did not want the elephant to suffer. So he continued to shoot it, but it did not die. He decided not to look at the elephant and walked away. Later he heard that the elephant suffered for a half an hour before it died. The villagers were torn because the older villagers felt like it was necessary for the elephant to be killed and the younger ones felt like it didn’t. The officer only

In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, the officer experiences internal and external pressure to shoot an elephant unwillingly. In the story, an Imperial British officer goes after an elephant causing a disturbance in a village of Burma. Despite having no intention to harm the elephant, he begins to conflict with the internal pressure of going against his own morals to please the Burmese people; externally dealing with the pressure of the Burmese crowd and the duties of his imperial job. Ultimately, he succumbs to pressure and shoots the elephant against his intentions. As the officer encounters the elephant face to face he decides he will not kill the animal. His attitude is clear from the start as “ I had no intention of shooting the

He says that secretly he supported the Burmese and hated their oppressors, the British, who he worked for. The policeman then gets called up because of a tiny incident. An elephant had killed someone and the Burmese people were urging the policeman to shoot the elephant. The narrator is then left with a decision whether to kill the elephant and show off his authority or leave the elephant be and seem weak to the Burmese people. Ultimately, he is forced to shoot the elephant in order to avoid being laughed at and the elephant suffers an agonizing death.

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell is set in Burma when it was once a British colony. The story is told by a first-person narrator serving in Burma as a British policeman who is hated and seen as an oppressive figure of white English society. A rogue elephant had killed a Burmese man; the action of the story revolves this concern. When the narrator finds the rogue elephant standing peacefully in a field, his first intentions are not to kill the elephant. He shoots the elephant several times when he knows that the large crowd behind him expect him to take the elephant down. He can not stand watching the elephant suffering and eventually leaves. Thomas Foster’s

“Shooting an Elephant” is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man, Orwell, who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, along with the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He states, 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 uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.

In the article "Shooting an Elephants" by George Orwell the author's story is very captivating and descriptive. “I remember that it was a cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains.” He does not hold back the details as if he remembers them. Orwell originally did not want to shoot the elephant but feared what his peers would say, his peers being the thousand yellow faces that stood behind him if he didn't complete his job. Unfortunately, he was not in fear of his life but his duty and job called for him to against his morals and shoots the elephant. The locals had it out for him anyways, not killing elephant would have added fire to the flame of the dislike they would have for the policeman. The Burmese people play a huge role, badgering

The story of Shooting an Elephant is a short story that shows the internal struggle of a man who tries to figure out for himself if he values self respect more or others respect more. The main character is a European who works for the sub-divisional police in South East Asia. He is stationed in Burma where, even though he hates the people, he hopes the Burmese win the war. Hatred for the Burmese people is fueled by their mocking him and treatment towards him with absolutely no respect and little regard. In addition, even though the man shoots the elephant, he earlier stated that he had absolutely no resolve in him to shoot the elephant. His decision to not kill the elephant comes crumbling down when he realizes the Burmese will take notice of him if he shoots the elephant. Why would he care about what the Burmese thought of him if they hated him anyway? This is because his hatred for the Burmese is little in comparison to how much he wishes for respect and recognition. The

While the elephant continues to break away, his force begins to diminish “ One could have imagined him thousands of years old.”(5). We now see the power that the Burmese are capable of putting out. The British army is slowly giving up. Orwell shoots again “...he did not collapse but climbed with desperate slowness…”(5). Again, “ That shot did it for him”(5), the British army has lost all their strength to the Burmese, as the Burmese flock to the dying elephant Orwell fires two more times to end the pain and suffering once and for all. The British army has been robbed of all their power, you see them have the vision of re-rising but can not. Eventually the elephant dies, symbolizing the freedom the Burmese have just

George Orwell describes to us in “Shooting an elephant” the struggle that his character faces when to win the mobs approval and respect when he shoots down an innocent animal and sacrifices what he believes to be right. Orwell is a police officer in Moulmein, during the period of the British occupation of Burma. An escaped elephant gives him the opportunity to prove himself in front of his people and to be able to become a “somebody” on the social

Being from the east, nobody is fond of him, but he sees this as an opportunity to prove himself. This story reveals his meaning of violence as he is stuck in this dilemma. Is it really worth it, to shoot the elephant? Thomas C. Foster’s chapter, “. . . More

In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” conflicts arise within the British policeman. Throughout the essay, the British man is faced with issues in his life that challenges him not only internally, but also socially. Maintaining his self image was mainly one of the problem in this essay. Although he was authorized to be given respect; he didn’t want to want to risk it, but there were also other reasons that he experienced conflict.. Firstly, the policeman had issues with the Burmese people that he had to serve.

However, personally it is suggested that he doesn’t want to kill the elephant. When he finally shoots the

The writer shows that the police officer is anxious to be likes by the villagers through him killing the elephant. He didn’t want to kill the poor beast, but he knew that it is what the people want. When the officer kills the elephant, he immediately sees that this killing was unreasonable. Part of society agrees with it and part is not. These differences of opinions lead him to be unsure of what society actually wanted him to do.

The conflict in “Shooting and Elephant” is between the British officer and his self image. On his quest to finding this elephant that ravaging the Bazaar, he brought an old .44 Winchester with him, not to kill the elephant, but to simply use the noise to frighten the elephant. Soon after he found the elephant, a crowd began to form behind him as they saw his rifle. His intentions were not to shoot the elephant but he was worried what people would think if he did not do so. Coming from an area that wasn’t as high in poverty as the place he went to shoot the elephant, people were amused by his attempts of killing the elephants. I don’t think if he was in as high of authority as he was it wouldn’t have mattered if he shot the elephant. Since he

The narrator is in conflict with his superiority and his conscience on whether or not to shoot the elephant. The "must" of the elephant has passed and is now peaceful; it would be relatively easy to keep an eye on him until the mahout returns. However, the crowd behind the narrator waiting for him to show his ability as a police officer makes him doubt they will laugh at him if he simply leaves or is allowed to be killed by the elephant.