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Shooting An Elephant p. 1016
George Orwell
In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by
large numbers of people (Orwell).
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George Orwell

• (1903 - 1950)
• British journalist and author
• Wrote two of the most famous novels of the 20th
  century, Animal Farm and 1984.

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George Orwell

• Orwell was born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25,
  1903 in eastern India, the son of a British
  colonial civil servant.
• He was educated in England and, after he left
  Eton, joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma,
  then a British colony.
• He resigned in 1927, and decided to become a
  writer.

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George Orwell

• In 1928, he moved to Paris where lack of success
  as a writer forced him into a series of menial
  jobs.
• He described his experiences in his first book,
  Down and Out in Paris and London, published in
  1933.
• He took the name George Orwell, shortly before
  its publication.

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(No Transcript)
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Vocabulary

1. Prostrate defenseless/in a prone or lying
   position
2. Imperialism policy and practice of forming and
   maintaining an empire in order to control raw
   materials and world markets by the conquests of
   other countries and the establishment of colonies
3. Despotic tyrannical
4. Squalid miserably poor wretched
5. Dominion rule or power to rule a governed
   territory
6. Senility mental or physical decay due to old age

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Literary Device/Irony

• Irony literary device that brings out surprising
  or amusing contradictions.
• In verbal irony, the intended meaning of words
  clashes with their usual meaning, as when Orwell
  describes the dangerous elephant as
  grandmotherly.
• In irony of situation, events contradict what you
  expect to happen, as when the young Buddhist
  priests are revealed to be the most insulting
  toward the British.

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Personal Narrative

• Personal narratives usually focus on one key
  event.
• Though true, they are told like fictional
  stories
• They have a setting
• a main character among a group of characters
• a series of events that lead to a climax, a
  resolution, or ending.

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About the Selection

• Orwells essay reveals the ambivalence
  (uncertainty) a person may feel in a position of
  power.
• On one hand, young Orwell sympathizes with the
  Burmese people.
• On the other hand, Orwell, the police officer, is
  committed to continuing and even defending that
  oppression.

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Orwells Conflicting Attitudes

• Orwells sympathy for the Burmese
• His dislike of imperialism
• His desire to leave his job
• These attitudes conflict with his role as
  police officer and his bad treatment by the
  Burmese.

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State of MUST

• When an elephant goes wild in a Burmese
  marketplace, Orwell must act, making decisions
  more from his confused feelings than from COMMON
  SENSE.
• In the process, he demonstrates the intense human
  desire to avoid embarrassment.

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Summary

• The narrator, an officer of the British imperial
  police in Burma, considers himself an enemy of
  imperialism.
• His role as a representative of the British crown
  invites the hatred of the Burmese.
• One day an elephant ravages a bazaar and kills a
  laborer (coolie).
• The narrator, who must track down the elephant,
  has no intention of shooting it, especially when
  he finds it grazing peacefully in a paddy.

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Summary - continued

• Yet, Orwell feels he must maintain face in
  front of the crowd of Burmese who have followed
  him.
• Inexperienced, he repeatedly wounds the elephant,
  leaving the scene before the animal dies.
• The villagers cut up the elephants body for food.