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Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
Summary
Short Story
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
ABOUT THE ESSAY
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
This short essay, "Shooting an Elephant" was written by British writer George Orwell. This essay was first published in the literary magazine New Writing in late 1936. Later, it was broadcasted by the BBC Home Service on October 12, 1948. This essay is based on the writer's experience shooting an elephant as a police officer in colonial Burma. The main themes of this essay are the concepts of imperialism, captivity, and authority.
MAIN SUMMARY
Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell
Orwell begins his essay with some backstory. He was serving as a police officer in Moulmein, Burma. The region, which was then part of India, was controlled by the British and the Burmese. People had quite negative feelings towards the Europeans. During that time, the narrator was against imperialism, so he was on the side of the Burmese people. However, the people around him were not aware of this. They saw him as just another white man in a position of authority to which he was not entitled, and they harassed him. The narrator didn't like the job of officer because it was part of the imperialist plan. He also hated the way he was treated by the people of Burma.
One day he received a call and got information regarding an escaped male elephant that was in the phase of "musth"-a phase that male elephants often go through. In this phase, their testosterone (sexual harmons) increases, and they often become aggressive.
The elephant's mahout, or handler, had gone in the wrong direction in search of his elephant. He was twelve hours away from the spot. After getting information, the officer headed towards the market, where the elephant was reportedly seen. But, by the time he reached there, the elephant had moved on somewhere else.
Musth is a normal phenomenon as well as a time during which male elephants exhibit increased levels of sexual activity and aggressiveness and often secrete leaking temporin from the sides of their heads. It occurs periodically.
The officer noticed a woman trying to restrain some children. Later, he moved ahead to investigate. The woman moved the children away from the corpse of a man who had been crushed by the elephant. On seeing the body, the officer sent someone after an elephant. The officer had only brought his ordinary rifle, which was no match for an elephant. He was told that the elephant was in some paddy fields, so he started in that direction.
By the time he found the elephant, the narrator was followed by a huge crowd of Burmese, which he said numbered more than 2000. At that time, the elephant was eating grass in the paddy field and seemed to have calmed down. He asked some people how the elephant was, and they said it was calm but might attack if one came too close. Being too scared to try to get closer to the elephant, the officer felt he had only one option: shoot the elephant.
The narrator repeatedly declared that he did not want to shoot the elephant. However, he knew that a large number of people around him wanted him to take the shot. They were very excited by the action and could take the meat after the task was completed. He then realised the main irony of the situation: that he was not actually in power, although he had a technical position of authority.
At the urging of the crowd and not wanting to appear foolish or weak, the narrator took aim and fired, but he did not realise that he had taken the wrong aim. Neither his first bullet nor his second bullet brought down the peaceful elephant. The third shot knocked the animal down, but it did not kill it. He fired the remaining two rounds. It took half an hour for the giant to die after the narrator was freed from the bullets.
His action in shooting an elephant received mixed reactions. Some people said that he was within his right to shoot the elephant, especially since it had killed someone and the meat would feed many people. Others condemned him, saying that shooting the peaceful animal wasn't good at all, as the elephant was the source of one's livelihood and the value of being alive was far greater than that of being dead.
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