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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

Shooting an elephant is an essay written by George Orwell. It describes his experience when shooting an aggressive elephant while working as police officer in Burma. This essay is also considered as an autobiography since it contains his experience. In this paper, the writer will analyze the essay by using author-oriented approaches. It will analyze how the author sees himself, how the author sees his environment, and how the author sees his native environment.

CHAPTER II CONTENT

The author of shooting an elephant is George Orwell, he wrote this essay when he worked as police officer in Burma. As police officer in the colonized area, should always find himself as a victim of anti-European feeling by the native society. He stated that he was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. However, Orwell didnt blame Burmese of this situation. He blamed his own country that make this miserable condition occurred in Burma. He thought that imperialism was an evil thing. Therefore, he secretly served himself for Burmese to fight against the oppressors. He drew this situation in the second paragraph of the essay: All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got

out of it the better. Theoretically and secretly, of course I was all for Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. However, he can do nothing for this situation. He can only said his problem in the silence like other Englishmen in the east do. He thought that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil spirited little beast who tried to make my job impossible. Toward his British environment, he thought that they were evil because the imperialism is evil. They did a lot of dirty work, such as how they punish the prisoner like an animal like he stated in the second paragraph of the essay: The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been bogged with bamboos all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt. Furthermore, Orwell saw the Burmese as the victim of imperialism. However, they didnt have an ability to fight against it, even a guts to start a riot. All they can do is only insulting or jeering at European, of course if they thought they were safe enough to do it.

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