"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell

After reading Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, I could sense the narrator's struggle of helping and despising the Indian natives at the same time. Orwell hated his government as well as the irritating Indians that make his job more difficult than it already was. On the other hand, Orwell was surprisingly for the people and against the natives' oppressors. In essence, this situation was more of a love-hate scenario in that each side, whether it was his British empire or the Indians, was complicated. However, I felt as if Orwell was being a bit hypocritical on the topic of hating his British empire. Orwell shot and slaughtered an elephant because he felt that it was necessary for the animal to be killed to impress the Indians. To Orwell, this act of killing was a way for him to express his dominance as a white man with a rifle to the natives, much like a tyrant expressing his control over the people. If Orwell disliked his government for oppressing the Indians by conveying their authority over them, wouldn't this situation be hypocritical because Orwell did not approve of tyranny but also communicated his influence as if he was a tyrant? One cannot hate something or someone but can have the ability to have that something or be that someone.

Throughout Shooting an Elephant, several elements of narrative would include the details on the description and word choice. Even though there was no dialogue in the reading, Orwell was extremely descriptive throughout the reading, such as when he illustrated the image of the dead man's body that was stomped on by the elephant or the scene where he slaughtered the elephant. In addition to his attention to details, Orwell used a specific yet unique word choice in different parts of the reading. Besides using two Latin terms "saecula saeculorum" and "in terrorem", Orwell used uncommon words like "must" or "mahout". Perhaps the use of these words would force the readers to pay close attention to the details and plot of the story. Personally, these words, without having any prior knowledge on their definitions, made me read more thoroughly than other readings.

Other than the details on the description and the word choice, there was a use of figurative language throughout the reading. Some examples of figurative language were: "The friction of the great beast's foot had stripped the skin from his back as neatly as one skins a rabbit", "If the elephant charged and I missed him, I should have about as much chance as a toad under a steam-roller", and "...for as his hind legs collapsed beneath him he seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skywards like a tree."

In order for Orwell to have authority and respect from the Indians, he shot the elephant. The last sentence from the last paragraph stated, "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool." Orwell wanted to impress others, especially the natives since he had more love for them than his British empire. The purpose of impressing the natives was to achieve respect from them, since they tend to enrage his hatred over everything.

Orwell's feelings about imperialism was that he truly hated oppression. Imperialism is the policy or concept of a country enforcing their power and influence to other countries. Even though Orwell hated the idea of oppression, he did express his authority by killing the elephant. Towards the middle and end of the reading, it stated Orwell's act and reason for killing the elephant. Without thought of what he did, Orwell became what he hated, a tyrant.