Lauren Balser
1 May 2018
English 112: English Composition
Shooting an Elephant: A defining moment
Shooting an Elephant: A Moment of time for George Orwell
George Orwell was an English novelist and essayist, He was best known for his work on Animal Farm written in 1945, and "Nineteen Eighty-Four" which he wrote in 1936. Orwell was a man of strong beliefs; he addressed political movements of his time period in a way that encouraged deeper thinking. He touched on topics such as fascism, imperialisms, and communism. These topics were written by first hand knowledge of Orwell, during his lifetime he gained the life experience to have insight and write his essays. Throughout all of his writings Orwell had a very common theme, the oppressed choose to be oppressed. All of his stories seem to reflect the mind set that those in the position of being oppressed seem to not try to change their circumstances. This is seen very blatantly in his essay "Shooting an Elephant."
"Shooting an Elephant" was an essay written in 1936 by George Orwell. The plot starts off in a town called Moulmein in Burma. The story is based around the time when Orwell was a police officer sent to Burma to watch over the people. Throughout the story Orwell talks of the town he is in and how the people of Moulmein treat him. He speaks of the disrespect he receives from the people and is continually mocked for who he is and his position in the town. Orwell states that he hated his job, not only for the hardships he received from the people of the town but also because he sees first hand how the British Empire runs and the inner workings of it and is disgusted by it. Orwell speaks of how the people of Moulmein despised being ruled over by the British Empire and how they took their hate out on him yet; they did nothing to try to change their circumstances. They loathed the control placed over them but did nothing to change it. Then he goes on to talk about how an elephant gets loose and tramples through the town killing a man. The elephant finally calms down and stops in the town, then Orwell is in the position to decide if the elephant should live or die. He eventually gives into the pressure put on him by the 2,000 people surrounding him. He believes he is in the position of power and if he does not show the people that he can handle a situation He mentions that because the elephant killed a man he felt the need and right to kill it, yet in hindsight he only killed it for the fact that it is what he believed the people surrounding him wanted him to do.
George Orwell seems to be a complex man who very obviously does not approve of the presences of the British Empire in Burma, yet he seems to become what he despises. Looking deeper into what Orwell says prior to shooting the elephant. Orwell talked of how he knew the elephant was in musk, which is when a male elephant essentially knows a female elephant is in heat and tries to find her and breed with her. He talks of how he knows the elephant would calm down in a day or two, which leads to why he would shoot an elephant if he know there was a biological reason why the animal broke free from its trainers and keepers. Even though Orwell mentally rationalizes and understands why the animal did what it did, he still thinks killing it is the most logical answer and not because he is afraid of the elephant but because of the crowd he is surrounded by. The idea of the elephant causing destruction draws such a close parallel to the destruction that the British Empire had brought to Burma and the final choice to kill the elephant was not choice made for his country but one that was made to show that he was still in control and in power.
Looking further into George Orwell’s past, whose birth name was Eric Blair was born on June 25, 2903 in Motihari, Bengal that is now known as India. Bengal was a British colony at the time and Blair’s father; Richard Walmesley Blair was apart of the Indian Civil Service, which worked to control the opium trade in the region, and oversaw the opium exports to Asia. Around the age of one Blair’s mother moved them to England. In his adult years Blair signed up to be apart of military and was shipped off to Spain to help fight in the Spanish Civil war. Unfortunately he was wounded in battle. Which meant that when World War II came around he could not physically be apart of the fight but that did not stop Blair from writing about the hardships he had faced and the things he had seen. This lead to the writings he is so famously known for now; “1984," Animal Farm, and "Shooting an Elephant."
In Orwell’s writing he talks often about how government’s use fear and different tactics to control its people. He speaks of this in both "1984" and Animal Farm. Throughout "1984" he continually speaks of “Big Brother is watching” which showcased how the government wanted its people to live in fear that they may at any point be caught doing something they should not have been doing. However, this statement doesn’t just apply to murders and criminals it applies to the everyday family; a working dad and a working mom who have a few small children. This concept is something that Orwell tries very hard to make his readers understand, no one is safe from the eyes of Big Brother. This is how he sets the tone for hate and fear to thrive and grow in a society where privacy does not exists and the always watching eye is going to be in a position of power.
Throughout his writings Orwell constantly runs with the themes that someone is always being oppressed yet he also tends to build his work around the idea that the oppressed tend to allow them selves to be oppressed. This is very clear in his writing in the book Animal Farm, the book is about a farm of animals that is being ruled over by their tyrannical farmer. Eventually the animals raise up to overthrow their oppressors but they do not succeed because they end up in a worse position than what they were in. This idea is also very prevalent in ‘Shooting and Elephant’ he describes the idea that the people of Burma could very easily riot and revolt against the British presence yet they do not do anything besides hurl insults at the police officers. This is why he speaks of loathing the Burmese people so much, not for only the way they treated him but for the way they allowed their selves to be treated and for not demonstrating any power what so ever. Orwell’s common theme was that strict oppressors or tyrannical leaders may have been bad but the idea of people allowing themselves to be in a position to revolt against and not do it was worse than the leaders themselves.
In conclusion it is obvious that Orwell was a writer way before his time recognizing the hardships the people around the world were already starting to face and even what had not began yet. He spoke in a way that allowed people to understand the possibility of what could happen if they did not stand up for themselves. "Shooting an Elephant" may have been one of the most important things George Orwell had ever written because it show cased a real life event that happened to him. This event would end up molding him to become the person he was later on in life and allowed him to have the mindset to write against tyrannical, imperialistic, and communistic governments. Orwell’s work showcases exactly what fear and hate can do to a country or a group of people. It shows how much a government can put themselves in a position of such great power by controlling the emotions of its people. This was his warning to us; recognize the leadership we have and precede with great caution.
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“George Orwell.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 15 Feb. 2018, www.biography.com/people/george-orwell-9429833.
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Woodcock, George. “George Orwell.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 3 Jan. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/George-Orwell.