Shooting an elephant summary BBS 2nd year vision
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Shooting An Elephant
George Orwell
Characters :
The narrator : The writer himself who was a British police officer.
A large crowd of Burmese people who demanded that the elephant must be Shot.
Setting :
Moulmein, Lower Burma in 1920's
Theme :
- Writers personal experience of being police officer in Burma (present Myanmar)
- Impact of British Imperialism.
- A dilemma in which someone is forced to do something that they did not want to do.
- Feelings and attitude of the Burmese towards the British.
Shooting an elephant summary by George Orwell :
The essay describes the writers personal experience of a police officer in a town in Burma, the present Myanmar. When he was working as a sub-divisional police officer in Burma. The Burmese had a bitter feeling towards the Europeans. The writer was young and ill-educated, however the Burmese had a great trust and belief upon his power and capacity as a representative of the British Empire.
When he was having his duty at a police station, he got information that an elephant had broken its chain and had escaped form its shelter to the market place damaging houses, crops and injuring people. Its mahout had been away and nobody was to take it under. No sooner had the writer had been informed about this incident then he rode on a pony, took a rifle and moved away to see the activities of the elephant.
There were around two thousands Burmese who were following the writer expecting him to shoot at the elephant quickly and avoid the danger. But the writer didn't want to shoot the elephant and kill it because it was a precious animal and it seemed to be enjoying in the field tearing up bunches of grass beating them against his knees and stuffing them into his mouth. It looked no more dangerous than a cow. But when he observed the crowded people, he sensed their expectation that the elephant must be killed.
In the eyes of the Burmese he was a representative of white men and he could kill the elephant easily. From their views he could understand that a white man should satisfy their demand and should not be frightened to use the rifle. Finally, He pulled the trigger of his rifle and shot the elephant. There was a loud roar of the elephant, However it didn't die at once. After the writer fired several times into the same spot of the elephant, it trumpeted for the last time. It was a merciless killing.
In the end, he couldn't stand there any longer and went away. He heard later that it took the elephant half an hour to die. Then, the Burmese people brought heavy knives and baskets and stripped its body by the afternoon. The writer come to hear later that the owner of the elephant was quite furious. Some Europeans said that he did well by killing the elephant as it was acting like a mad dog and younger Europeans thought that it was shameful act. Whatever was the incident the writer realized that it was not a task of bravery and it was compulsion to shoot the elephant in order to remain peaceful and courageous in the eyes of the Burmese.
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