Shooting an Elephant

A detailed Summary of Shooting an Elephant

Shoong an elephant: master or slave?

In the story "Shooting an Elephant," by George Orwell, the character finds himself at the mercy of a hooting crowd of Burmese villagers eager to see him shoot an elephant gone "must." The character is confronted with a moral dilemma and abandons his morals to escape the mockery of the native Burmans. He feels compelled to shoot the animal because the Burmans "did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching" (289). Therefore, in the story the character is both a master of his dominion and a slave to the population because he was pressured to shoot the elephant.

The narrator is a superior in the story because of his job. He is a British police officer that was transferred to Burma. He is an authority figure with power of the people of the land. That makes his a master of land. Even though he is a police officer, he still do

Slavery can take many forms. As one can see in the story, the character is a master, but he falls a slave to the crowd. The crowd pressures him into doing what they want him to do, and that is to kill the elephant. Not only will it be entertaining to them but it will also provide them with meat. The narrator describes the crowd vultures, not wanting to kill the elephant themselves, but waiting for him to kill it so they could swoop in and take the meat. The natives are willing to kill the elephant themselves, but they somehow know they can encourage the character to do so, and for that instant making the natives the master and the narrator the slave.

The character is pressured into killing the elephant in many ways. He knows that if he does not kill the elephant he will be laughed at and the people might disobey him. He rationalized killing the animal by saying he had to or he would look like a fo

Some common words found in the essay are:
George Orwell, kill elephant, , police officer, story character master, kill elephant themselves, story character, character master, killing elephant, elephant themselves, shoot elephant, elephant kill,

Approximate Word count = 616
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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Shooting an Elephant

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