George Orwell's Shooting an Elephant takes place in British India during the British reign in the

east of the hemisphere during the mid 1930's, when the writer was working as a sub-divisional
police officer in Bruma. During that era, the Indian people, although they were not ready yet to riot
against their oppressors, they were having a deep anti-European feeling which thrived from the
British ruling. The writer was placed in the middle of this perplexing situation as on the one hand he
believed that the acts of imperialism were evil, while on the other hand, he was a direct
representative of the oppressing force. For that reason, the writer was always a target of mockery
by the Indians at any chance given, which was making him uneasy and uncomfortable. At some
point, while Orwell was on duty, there was a phone call informing him and the other officers, about
an elephant who was on the loose as it escaped from its handler. While the heavy mammal was
trained, it was currently highly aggressive due to being in its reproductive period and thus was
destroying people's properties and terrorizing the citizens at the bazaar. Orwell took a pony and
started pursuing the enraged elephant while questioning the people in order to find the exact
location of it. He arrived in a very poor quarter of the city, while asking the people where the
elephant was last seen. Orwell couldn't get any definite information about the animal's location and
started to believe that the elephant was never there. Suddenly he was alarmed by a woman's yells
who was trying to shoo some children away from a coolie who had been brutally crushed by the
beast's hoofs. In the sight of the dead man Orwell sent an orderly to acquire from a friend a rifle
which was suitable for shooting an elephant in case he had to defend himself. Shortly after, he was
informed by a Bruman that the elephant was found in a rice field. The writer was now moving
towards the elephant's position when he noticed that there was a very large group of people, a mob,
was following him. He realized that when he ordered to have a gun fetched to him, he triggered the
people's anticipation of him shooting down the elephant. He was now at a close range to the animal
which looked peaceful. He knew that it was not safe to get close to the beast because the ground
was muddy and that could be a fatal trap for him in case the elephant charged against him. Orwell
was not inclined into shooting the poor animal, contrarily, he was hoping not to use the rifle at all.
However, he sadly realized that he did not have any other options. He knew that the crowd was
going to laugh at him if he didn't shoot the elephant. That possibility solely, made him compelled
into doing it as he was convinced by peer pressure that he had to stand his ground and prove to all
of those people that he was still an authority figure which ought to be taken seriously. Although
Orwell might have hoped to execute the elephant with a single shot, due to his poor knowledge in
that particular field, he placed his bullets in all the wrong spots. This of course, fatally wounded the
animal but inevitably led it to an agonizing and degrading death. He left the scene while the animal
was still alive struggling to breathe, as he couldn't bare the sight of it suffering, while the people
were eagerly waiting to scavenge the beast's corpse for anything edible or valuable. Later on,when
he discussed the incident with some Europeans he was told by the younger of them that it was a
damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than
any damn Coringhee coolie. Within such statement lies a very strong implication about the value
of the common people in a colony in the eyes of the colonial force. At the end, while Orwell knew
that he could legally kill the elephant, it is obvious that he realized that this was a very poor
decision of him as his only motive for doing it was simply to avoid looking foolish.