George Orwells Shooting an Elephant

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George Orwells Shooting an Elephant
Written 1936
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Born 1903 Died 1950

• On each landing, opposite the lift shaft, the
  poster with the enormous face gazed from the
  wall. It was one of those pictures which are so
  contrived that the eyes follow you about when you
  move. BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, the caption
  beneath it ran.
• "If you want a picture of the future, imagine a
  boot stamping on a human face--forever.
• --from
  Nineteen Eighty-Four

Biographical Info and more
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Excerpts From Why I Write, written 1946
What I have most wanted to do throughout the
past ten years is to make political writing into
an art. My starting point is always a feeling
of partisanship, a sense of injustice. When I
sit down to write a book, I do not say to
myself, 'I am going to produce a work of art. I
write it because there is some lie that I want to
expose, some fact to which I want to draw
attention, and my initial concern is to get a
hearing.
I have the desire to push the world in a certain
direction, to alter other peoples idea of the
kind of society that they should strive after.
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19th century cartoon portraying the British
Empire as an octopus
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The British Empire circa 1900
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Possible narrative point of Shooting an Elephant
Imperialism is an evil that enslaves both the
ruler and the ruled.
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Explicit references to Orwells thesis
Fist hinted at in Par. 2, sentence 2 I had
already made up my mind that imperialism was an
evil thing . . . . In the same par In a
job like that you see the dirty work of the
Empire at close quarters. and . . . all
these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of
guilt. and . . . I was stuck between my hatred
of the evil empire I served and my rage against
the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to
make my job impossible. (his dilemma) (140) In
par. 3, sentence 2 he ties the event to his
realization about Burmas occupiers It was a
tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a
better glimpse than I had had before of the real
nature of imperialism--the real motives for which
despotic governments act. (141) (tiny
becomes ironic in this story)
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Explicit references that relate to Orwells
thesis
In par. 5, approx. the middle I marched down
the hill, looking and feeling a fool . . . .
(142) In par 6 As soon as I saw the elephant
I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not
to shoot him. (143) In par 7 But at that
moment I glanced round at the crowd that had
followed me . . ., and suddenly I realized that
I should have to shoot the elephant after all.
(143)
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(cont.)
Explicit references that relate to Orwells
thesis
Here is the emphasis of the realization
mentioned in in the above reference and alluded
to in par. 3 And it was at this moment , as I
stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I
first grasped the hollowness, the futility of
the white mans dominion in the east. Here was
I, the white man, with his gun, standing in front
of the unarmed native crowd--seemingly the
leading actor of the piece but in reality I was
only an absurd puppet pushed to an fro by
the will of those yellow faces behind. I
perceived in this moment that when the white man
turns tyrant, it is his own freedom that he
destroys. connection to main idea of his story
(143)
Ending sentence I often wondered whether any
of the others grasped that I had done it to
solely avoid looking a fool. (145-46)
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All Voting age students
Reminder the registration deadline for the
upcoming November Election is Monday, October 4,
2004 and the deadline to request an Early Ballot
is Friday, October 22.
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