Shooting an Elephant

Essay Analysis Paper

Few supervisors experience lack of respect and denunciation from workers because of their positions in a company. Supervisors take actions to preserve the image of authority before subordinates and from being ridiculed by their workers, even if the supervisors object these types of actions. The essay "Shooting an Elephant" relates to this situation. The author of this essay is George Orwell. The author talks about his work and personal experience that emphasizes the impact of imperialism at the sociological and psychological stage. This paper shall discuss the Orwell's essay, how the artistic choices shape the facts in the essay, how the relationship between facts and artistry contributed to the essay, technique used, and how the tension between the facts and artistic intention in his thesis relates to the workplace.

Essay, artistic choices, and relationship between facts and artistry. The author joined the Indian Imperial Police as a colonial policeman in Moulmein, lower Burma, located in the part of the British Empire. This story took place in the late 1920s or early 1930s (Orwell, 1996, p.150). The story explains a culture conflict between the British (subjugator) and the Burmese (subjugated). Few British are present nevertheless the British rule, and the narrator, as sub-divisional police officer, is an agent of that rule. This contradiction is part of the setting, as is the local resentment against the British presence. Burmese hates the narrator and manifest this hatred by deception rather than directly. The Burmese would not raise a riot, but would let the British know how they felt. The author stated if a European woman goes through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress (Orwell, 1996). Orwell recall during a football game, a Burman illegally tripped him. The referee, a Burman, would look the other way and the crowd would yell with laughter. This happened more than once. The author claims the young Buddhist priests were the worst of the group. All this was perplexed for Orwell, but in his mind he believed imperialism was an evil thing. The author understood how the Burmese felt and was against the British's subjugation ways (Orwell, 1996). His form of writing allowed his voice to come right out of the page to the reader. There is one part of Orwell's mind that visualize British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny and another part in his mind where the greatest joy in the world would be Orwell driving a bayonet into a Buddhist priests' guts (Orwell, 1996). The author's thoughts pull the reader into his mindset and dilemma of his world. Orwell receives a telephone call from a Burmese sub-inspector that an elephant was ravaging the bazaar. He took a .44 Winchester, which too small to kill an elephant, and a pony. The author's intention is to use the gun to make a noise to deter the animal. Orwell explained the description of the quarter and explained to reader the weather conditions of the area, "cloudy, stuffy morning at the beginning of the rains" (Orwell, 1996, pp. 144). He asked the whereabouts of the elephant but receives vague answers. He noticed an old woman shooing away a group of naked children. The author mentioned to the reader the children were naked. This imagery help the reader see that the poverty was so poor that children wander the area naked. The woman was trying to prevent the children from seeing a corpse. A Burmese man was crushed by the elephant. The author gave a horrific imagery how the man was mangled by the elephant (Orwell, 1996). This situation became inevitable that Orwell must kill the animal due to a confirm death of a native Burmese. Orwell desires not to shoot the elephant, nevertheless, he sends the orderly to get an elephant rifle and five cartridges. The crowd followed Orwell shouting excitedly that he was going to shoot the elephant. Orwell stated he saw the elephant, which was calm and has ceased to be an immediate danger. He knew with perfect certainty not to shoot the creature; but somehow he was compelled to kill the elephant. Orwell believed if he resists executing the elephant, he knew he would be ridiculed by the crowd. He found it to be imperative that he should impress the crowd in order to be considered imperturbable, firm, and capable of rising to the occasion in a crisis. Orwell is caught between the tyranny of the ruler and the tyranny of the ruled that is pushing him back and forth like an absurd puppet (Orwell, 1996, p. 146). He loads the cartridges into the gun and pulls the trigger. The compressed paragraph describes the elephant's death. The narrator mentioned he fired three bullets into the elephant but the animal continues to gasp in pain and remain alive. The narrator takes his small-caliber hunting rifle and fires into the elephant's heart. Still it does not die.