Summary Of Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

Orwell’s autobiographical account of shooting and eventually killing an elephant presents the animal and its death sympathetically as it died a slow, painful death. Through the language, the author evokes sympathy towards the elephant and a slightly more complex feeling towards the author who, although he kills the elephant, suffers inwardly during the process and appears to be affected by the Burman crowd’s greed to strip the carcass.

In the society Orwell lived in, hunting was common amongst gentlemen and is less challenged morally. This is revealed by “one never does…” The use of this inclusive pronoun brings the reader to a circle of experienced hunters and indicates Orwell’s assumption of the reader’s shared values. However this does
Through the eyes of the author, the “agony” of the dying elephant is emphasized and how unbearable it is for him to watch the elephant die. He hears the “tortured gasps” of the elephant as “dreadful”. Where the adjective “tortured” connotes great pain caused deliberately. Sympathy for the elephant is evident as he refers to the elephant as “he” as opposed to “it”. This use of the personal pronoun personalizes the elephant and suggests Orwell realizes the elephant was more than an object of
When the shot is fired, the sentences are short and straight forward but longer sentences are used to emphasize the death of the elephant. This is effective in portraying the elephant’s death as slow, dragging and painful. The increasingly strong images of pain, allow the reader to feel the impact of the elephant’s death slowly building and how Orwell is reluctant to watch the elephant suffer. The more determined the author is to end the agony, the more powerless he is as his bullets are ineffectual. He eventually “could not stand it any longer and went away” unlike the Burmans. His departure reveals him as too horrified and the distancing perspective is conveyed by the fact that he is only told how much longer the elephant