Inner Conflict In George Orwell's Story Of The Elephant

Improved Essays
Register to read the introduction… In the story of the elephant Mr. Orwell paints a picture of another type of inner conflict that he experienced while working in Burma. That is, when one knows deep inside what they should rightly do, but due to outside pressures and influences they choose another course of action. The anecdote is about an elephant that is out of control and is ravaging a village. George Orwell is called out to neutralize the situation, but he does not know what he can do to help things. When he arrived at the scene he was told the elephant got away to paddy fields a thousand yards away. As Orwell made his way to the paddy the crowd behind him grew as they all hoped and assumed he would shoot the elephant. Upon reaching the field Orwell writes, ?As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.? By this time the crowd had grown to the size of at least two thousand, and every one of them wanted to see the animal shot. Orwell then realized that even thought he didn?t want to he would have to shoot the animal to protect his public persona as imperial policeman. ?To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing ? no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me.? These sentences perfectly describe his little crisis of what to do. The pressure of the crowd caused him to …show more content…
The writer masterfully invokes the same sickening feelings he received from the incident into the reader through sentences like: ?When I pulled the trigger?a mysterious, terrible change had come over the elephant. He neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered?he sagged flabbily to his knees. His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him.? After more horrendous descriptions of Orwell?s attempt to kill the elephant that just would not seem to die he shows the reader how disgusted he was when he says, ?In the end I could not stand it any longer and went

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Gorge, Orwell writes about an elephant in his essay “Shooting an Elephant” where the main craters is a police man for the British emperor in one of the eastern countries. This police man has an internal power struggle with his duty and internal feelings of what he knows as right. In this country he imply about how the people there are cage and are oppressed by the British Emperor he is also concern with his duty and how the people view him. Even though the policeman is authority figure he takes on the role of the tyrant.…

    • 379 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. The name of this Unit as well as the theme is Culture and Society. Consider the three essays we have read for this week, and explain the relevance of the Orwell, Gansberg, and Rhode essays on our culture and our society. These essays relate to the theme of culture and society, in how society can judge someone. In Orwell's essay, the main character was mainly concerned of how the "natives" would view and treat him if he did not shoot the elephant.…

    • 862 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In addition, the speaker of “Shooting an Elephant” is a sub-divisional police officer and a lot of people hate him, thus leading him wanting to please the people by shooting the elephant. Orwell persuades the readers that under imperialism both parties suffer. The author accomplishes his purpose through shifts in verb tense, reflective tone, and specific details to assert authority; metaphor and analogy to demonstrate logic; and a self-deprecating tone, direct reader address, and colloquial language to establish an emotional connection with the audience. Orwell’s shifts in verb tense evoke a…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Rhetorical Analysis of “Shooting an Elephant” Caught between a rock and a hard place Mr. George Orwell is in “Shooting an Elephant”. Orwell’s features an entertaining and informative style of the characters and how they feel tend to draw us into Burma. Orwell utilizes the use of ethos throughout the story making you sympathize with the main character. In "Shooting an Elephant", Orwell tries to gain the sympathy of the Burman folk by expressing his feelings as an English man in Burma, yet he fails to convey to the Burmese his intentions, troubled with his morals, and showing a sense of tenderness to the dying Elephant.…

    • 800 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Orwell also uses the technique of imagery to the strongest extent to further his argument. In the moment that the narrator looks back on the crowd of natives behind him, he depicts the people as a “sea of yellow faces”, hungry for action and excitement. The image of a rumblingsea, tossing and turning with excitement, creates a sense of power behind the façade of the oncehelpless natives. Indeed, during the course of the next few scenes, Orwell feels this power as anunyielding force pressuring him to shoot the elephant. As Orwell mulls over the critical decision,he comes upon the realization that the “white man” must display strength and authority when the people demand it.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Orwell uses rhetorical devices in more than 30 places in this short story, such as: alliteration, semi homophones, similes, metaphors, euphemisms, hyperbole, repetition, parallelism, satire, symbolism and so on. These rhetorical devices played different roles in mobilizing the reader emotionally, so that author can more effectively shows his inner contradiction when he shoots the elephant, explores the miserable lives of the colonial peoples, and convinces the reader to believe the evils of colonialism. Consider the following two…

    • 1541 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He does not initially intend on killing the animal, but anti-imperialism and the pressure of the crowd really get to him. Orwell states that the only reason he shot and killed the beast was to avoid looking like a fool which, in the end, caused the author to be thankful that the man was killed because it gave him a reason to shoot at the elephant and he would not get in trouble with the authority. George Orwell uses detailed description of how the people are reacting to effectively show readers how peer pressure can affect people in positions of power. Although Orwell struggled…

    • 1065 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Next, in addition to using compelling thoughts, Orwell also descriptively uses emotional appeal to show the emotions of his and even the elephant’s emotions. For instance, in the twelfth paragraph Orwell states, “It seemed dreadful to see the great beast lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, and not even to be able to finish him” (789). He continues, “The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock” (789). Using the emotionally detailed image of the elephant shows how Orwell saw the elephant and his thoughts on how the animal would not die. However, as the essay closes, Orwell analyzes the shooting and how he felt afterwards.…

    • 796 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “Shooting an Elephant” his exact feelings about imperialism was that it is an “evil thing”; thus the reader knows his position right away. The story begins with a mad elephant running loose and the Burmese call on Orwell to kill the animal. Therefore, Orwell makes a troublesome decision on the hunt for the elephant. In the end, he shoots the elephant to, in a way save face from the locals. As a result, the elephant dies slowly and painfully.…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    George Orwell faces multiple conflicts in Shooting an Elephant. The first is British imperialism. The British took over Burma and they are treating the natives terribly. Second, the natives aren’t taking this imperial government kindly either as they continuously mock Orwell because he’s a symbol of the government and a vulnerable “obvious target” (Orwell). Orwell hates the way the British impose their power on the Burmese.…

    • 1597 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the text it states that Orwell was worth watching for a small period of time, he had the power to control the peoples emotional state, whether he killed the elephant or not. Similar to the rifle Orwell was a pawn. The villages controlled him in any direction they wanted to, like when they laughed at him for no reason, and when the pressure of the two-thousand people forced him to shoot the elephant, because he was afraid to upset a multitude of people. The same way Orwell had no say in things the same a rifle has no say t what it shoots, it never fails to disappoint the user.…

    • 734 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Being a person of high authorities can sometimes form a burden on you. This correlates to, “Shooting an Elephant,” by George Orwell, which is about a police officer in Burma. The police officer is a European, so he faces plenty of hatred in Burma. However, one day an elephant goes into “must” state and it is up to this police officer to stop the elephant. The police officer is not justified in his actions as he shoots the elephant to maintain his pride, the elephant is already in peace and there is plenty of social pressure.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “With great power comes great responsibility”. In one’s lifetime, this quote is found to be true in almost all aspects of life. However, this saying fails to comprehend the views of society towards those with power. It is human nature to not welcome authority, despite the fact that it is necessary in the balance of life. George Orwell states that he was once “hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.”…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    However, he feels that the elephant is no longer dangerous and has no intention of killing the elephant. Orwell begins to give the elephant human attributes by referring to the elephant as “he”. He believes that killing the elephant would be considered murder. 4. Orwell writes that he had made up his mind not to shoot… what changed his mind?…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    ‘Shooting an Elephant’ represents a very powerful essay with a police officer that suffers from inner conflict. Orwell seems to be a very weak individual with a weak mindset. Confused and lost as to what decisions he really should make on his own. He sets the mood of this impression in the start of his essay.…

    • 911 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays