Manam Khalid 27100254

Critical Analysis:

George Orwell’s essay ‘Shooting the elephant’ takes place in Burma during
British colonial rule. In the essay, the narrator has morals and ethics, but he
shoots the elephant because of imperialism, expectations of the ‘natives’ and his
own fear of being thought weak. I think that although the writing is mostly
insightful, descriptive and interesting, but it can be disturbing other times.

The writing focuses on the nature of imperialism and the morally questionable
things that had to be done just to achieve dominance and power. The narrator
George Orwell, a sub divisional police officer, recounts an incident where he
had to shoot an elephant that had escaped in Moulmein and killed a Burmese
coolie. The narrator talks about how despite not wanting to shoot the elephant,
his internal thoughts to not be perceived as weak or a ‘fool’ and be laughed
upon, convince him to kill the elephant. The essay ends with the writer being
thankful that the elephant had killed a person and hence, legally justified his
decision to shoot it. The essay’s structure is narrative and in first person, sharing
the narrator’s experience first, followed by the story of the elephant and his
linked emotions so that readers can sympathise as well.

The essay was informative, understandable and focused on the reality of Burma
during British rule. I liked how the essay made you stop, think and question the
things going on, and everything including the setting, characters and the themes
(internal conflict, imperialism) were well described. However, I disliked (and
found hard to read) the very graphical description of the elephant’s torment
before it passed away. I also noticed slight racism in how the writer kept
referring to the Burmese as ‘natives’ and thought he had it tougher than them
being a white man in India.

Overall, I strongly recommend reading the article if you’re interested in reading

and researching about history because the article is very informative and a really
good and unbiased reflection of the internal battles the narrator had to fight to
reach his decision to shoot the elephant in an unceremonious way.