Shooting an Elephant Literary Analysis Essay Example for Free

Shooting an Elephant Literary Analysis EssayGeorge Orwells 1930 short score Shooting an Elephant, demonstrates the total dangers of the unlimited authority a state has and the astounding presentment of future dystopia. In the drool, Orwell finds himself to be in an intricate situation that involves an elephant. Not that does the fate of the elephants livelihood live in Orwells hands, he has an audience of hoi polloi behind him cheering him on, making his decision untold more difficult to make.Due to the vast crowd surrounding his surveys, Orwell kills the elephant in the end, not wanting to bring down the people of Burma. Orwell captures the hearts of readers by revealing the struggles he has while dealing with the burden of his own beliefs and morals. Orwells story connects with the readers because they understand the emotions and stress one can have before making a cap decision, as well as fretting about being judged at the same time. In the beginning of his story, O rwell illustrates his point as a hated police officer.He was consistently insulted and despised by the Burmese people. The topical anaesthetics were of all time treating him poorly, but he always did his job and kept in mind their best interest. He was already somewhat of a leader in this town because of his position, but now that there is the situation with a ravaging elephant in the town, he is forced to step up and take control of the elephant. Being the white-hot leader, he should have been able to make an independent decision, but was influenced by the natives (Orwell 101).Orwell has this immense blackjack building up over this decision, and his emotions as Here I was the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed crowd-seemingly the leading actor of the piece but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind (101). Majority of the people in the creation have been faced with a situation similar to this, taki ng responsibility of something that can be life changing. As Orwell demonstrates the chaos that was going on in Burma, readers can sense the feelings of what the locals are dealing with.As Orwell walks through the town to find the disasters the elephant do, he encounters the horrific scene of a dead mans body. The elephant, which can be symbolized as a dangerous threat, imposes on the little town and deteriorates some of the Burmese foods and goods. Not only was the puppet an escapee, it was also in must, meaning an increase in the aim of aggressive behavior due to testosterone levels being high, causing the elephant to be more dangerous than ever.Because of the actions that the elephant had made, the Burmese people wanted the elephant dead under any circumstances. Feeling bad for the owner of the savaged physical, Orwell had to weigh out his options of violent death the elephant. Thomas Bertonneau states, But the elephant, of course, is well-known for its high level of intelli gence, a fact which raises it out of the merely animal category and the friendly structure of Burmese society under the British tends to underscore such quasi-human status.The animal is a working animal and to do work is to engage in a recognizably social activity the animal belongs, as Orwell later discloses, to an Indian, a person below the British in the local hierarchy but above the Burmese, a person of some wealth, for the elephant is the equivalent of a huge and expensive piece of machinery in the local economy (par. 4). Orwell recognizes the facts from both sides of this situation (1) the elephant should be killed because of its violent actions, making the townsfolk happy, or (2) waiting for the man who owns the elephant to get there to capture it safely and let it live.As he takes in the opinions of others, he believes he should wait for the Indian man to get there therefore the elephant is outlay much more alive than if it were dead. As the ending of the story draws to a near, Orwell is looked upon as a whiz in the story. As he grabs the gun, the crowd roars with excitement and the fate of the elephant lies in his hands. With much regret, he shoots the elephant several(prenominal) times, but never actually ends his misery. Orwell takes his interpretation of storytelling to a whole new level.During Orwells time in Burma, he was exposed to several unethical situations, causing him to make a decision that questions his beliefs and morals. He made sure that the reader was involved into the dilemma and mindset of his world he lived in. The story is told from the experiences that Orwell had, giving his story a little more of an edge and captures the attentiveness of wanting to know more. He told the story as if it was happening to him again, allowing the reader to relive the moments as he did back then. It brought it all back to his morals, and doing what he thought was right to do.