The Destructive Elephant in the Room
Throughout time, empire-building has resulted in tenfold more destruction than contributions to the world. From the Mongols to the Nazis, humans have always exhibited their greedy nature by seeking more land without minding the effects. Those left in imperialism’s aftermath experience profound cultural effects such as those seen in “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. The tone begins as acrimonious and bitter then shifts to introspectiveness and strife, highlighting the officer’s views of how Burma and its foreign culture has changed his character.
In the first half, or so, of the text, Orwell’s tone is acrimonious to express the character’s bitterness towards the uncooperative natives he presides over. …show more content…
He later continues on: “There were several thousands of them [young Buddhist priests] in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans” (851). The way Orwell describes the natives’ actions, using negatively packed words such as “sneering” and “jeer”, displays the character’s sour viewpoint of the locals and that he nearly despises his time in Burma and the foreign culture he does not understand well. This casts the native agitators in a hostile, negative light that makes the character feel unwelcome. Throughout the first half of the essay leading up to the hunt for the elephant, the character also develops his equally acidic stance on his country and its invasive, ignorant action. Describing the country’s and his present situation, he says “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts …show more content…
The feeling is first present when he finds the elephant and realizes the mob’s mentality and build-up. “It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd [...] It made me vaguely uneasy” (853). The officer recognizes the mob has a different idea than his on how to handle the situation. He senses the warped mindset and immediately knows something is not right when he states “It made me vaguely uneasy”. When the officer tracks down the elephant, his fears come true as he soon realizes his morals and plan of action is vastly contradictory to what the mob of citizens hope to see. “I had halted on the road. As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him [...] and at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow” (854). The character clearly does not want to harm the animal. The elephant is to him what a loon or eagle is to a bird watcher. He notices how peaceful the animal is and how it is simply acting as its natural self yet readers get the sense that he cannot escape the clutches of the mob. His fear overcomes reality just shortly after when the pressure snaps his will and he shoots the animal, quickly becoming sick of himself. “The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. In the end
Throughout time, empire-building has resulted in tenfold more destruction than contributions to the world. From the Mongols to the Nazis, humans have always exhibited their greedy nature by seeking more land without minding the effects. Those left in imperialism’s aftermath experience profound cultural effects such as those seen in “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. The tone begins as acrimonious and bitter then shifts to introspectiveness and strife, highlighting the officer’s views of how Burma and its foreign culture has changed his character.
In the first half, or so, of the text, Orwell’s tone is acrimonious to express the character’s bitterness towards the uncooperative natives he presides over. …show more content…
He later continues on: “There were several thousands of them [young Buddhist priests] in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans” (851). The way Orwell describes the natives’ actions, using negatively packed words such as “sneering” and “jeer”, displays the character’s sour viewpoint of the locals and that he nearly despises his time in Burma and the foreign culture he does not understand well. This casts the native agitators in a hostile, negative light that makes the character feel unwelcome. Throughout the first half of the essay leading up to the hunt for the elephant, the character also develops his equally acidic stance on his country and its invasive, ignorant action. Describing the country’s and his present situation, he says “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts …show more content…
The feeling is first present when he finds the elephant and realizes the mob’s mentality and build-up. “It was a bit of fun to them, as it would be to an English crowd [...] It made me vaguely uneasy” (853). The officer recognizes the mob has a different idea than his on how to handle the situation. He senses the warped mindset and immediately knows something is not right when he states “It made me vaguely uneasy”. When the officer tracks down the elephant, his fears come true as he soon realizes his morals and plan of action is vastly contradictory to what the mob of citizens hope to see. “I had halted on the road. As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him [...] and at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow” (854). The character clearly does not want to harm the animal. The elephant is to him what a loon or eagle is to a bird watcher. He notices how peaceful the animal is and how it is simply acting as its natural self yet readers get the sense that he cannot escape the clutches of the mob. His fear overcomes reality just shortly after when the pressure snaps his will and he shoots the animal, quickly becoming sick of himself. “The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock. In the end