George Orwell's Shooting of Elephant - Assignment Example

George Orwell’s essay “Shooting an Elephant” tends to provide strong emotions. How is this done and what emotions is Orwell trying to provoke? Orwell is trying to provoke the emotion of dilemma to this reader that being an agent of imperialism being an Imperial Officer is not a desirable feeling. In the essay, Orwell narrated his internal conflict as he was “stuck between his hatred of the empire he served and his rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make his job impossible” and that “the sooner he chucked up the job and got out of it the better” (2844 Orwell).

He was repressing this feeling because it would not do him good if his government or the Burmese people will know about it. If they will know about it, his government will think that he has betrayed his country and he also cannot sympathize with the Burmese because he would look like a fool to them. This strong emotion of dilemma was shown when he was called to respond to the report that a man was killed by an elephant in Musth. With how the man looked lying on his belly, Orwell surmised that he suffered first before dying.

He empathized for the man. As he inspected the body, the crowd gathered around him and as expected they would want him to kill the elephant. But Orwell knows that the elephant is no longer a danger and it is wrong to kill him (later changing the pronoun to persuade the crowd not to kill the elephant). But not doing so would mean losing his face as an Imperial Officer. So he shot the elephant. But the elephant did not die soon. He took his rifle and shot the elephant but the elephant did not die but only grimace in pain.

Orwell was not able to stand it that he left. This scene depicted the emotion of internal conflict that Orwell suffered that overwhelmed him that he had to leave.