Taylor Loving

    George Orwell was born in Motihari, India in 1903 and died in 1950. His writings all had one thing in common. They were all written on political topics. He was a democratic socialist which falls under a style of participatory government. He was involved in the British overseas ministry in 1921 to 1927. He was a volunteer in the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. All the while, he wrote essays, novels, journals, and criticized works. He is best known for his works  Animal Farm, Nineteen Eighty-Four, and "Shooting and Elephant." Each of these works expressed characteristics of an Orwellian society which means people choose their oppression.

    His work, Animal Farm is about a fictional animal farm where animals have human like characteristics and fall into an Orwellian society. Mr. Jones, the overseer of the farm starts to notice the animals are beginning to form this style government. As the novel progresses, the idea that all animals are created equally turns into the idea that some are more equal than others. The pigs begin living in the farmhouse and wearing the farmers clothes while horses work all their lives and still end up at the glue factory. This work of George Orwell’s is a great example of a terrible way to run a society, but also highlights the fact that there is no great way to run a society.

    In his work Nineteen Eighty-Four, the idea that if “Big Brother” is watching, means that all is well in the society. Citizens are lead to believe that they are safe with their government watching their every move. The idea is that nothing bad can happen to you if the government knows what is happening with it’s people and those who surround their people is what “Big Brother” is supposed to stand for. Oceania, the setting of the novel, even created a language enforced by the “Thought Police” that is designed to eliminate the “Oldspeak” language that previously existed. The idea that the government is all powerful and controls the society inspired Orwell wen writing this novel.

    The most influential of all of George Orwell’s is his essay, "Shooting an Elephant." In 1936, George Orwell was a police officer in Burma who was hated by his society. He dreamed of getting out of his line of work, as he felt he was too close to the Empire for comfort. He saw everything that was wrong with their power up close and personal.  He says in his essay, “Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism…” One day an incident happened that shined a new light on imperialism he hadn’t known before.

    An elephant had gone “must” in the bazaar. The citizens were frightened and called on the Burmese police officer, Orwell, to handle the situation. Orwell set out with a gun that was only large enough to terrorize the elephant because he did not want to kill the elephant. The elephant’s mahout was the only person who could effectively handle it the state it was in. Much to Orwell’s disadvantage, the beast’s mahout was far out on a journey, and the people demanding something be done by the police. In Orwell’s pursuit, he heard the stories of what the elephant was doing and made himself believe the people were lying and over-exaggerating. Upon arrival, he came to find the people weren’t entirely wrong.

    The elephant had killed an Indian man. The body was stomped into the soft mud and the corpse looked “devilish.” Although, Orwell still believed he shouldn't have to shoot the elephant. He hoped the elephant would wander off while grazing and the time would pass until the mahout came to handle it, but Orwell was alone in believing that. A crowd of people had been following and watching Orwell to see the elephant be shot. They wee unaware of his hesitation and discomfort. Although he was a hated police officer, the people wanted to see what he would do and depended on him shoot the elephant. He convinced himself that he had to shoot the elephant, despite not wanting to, because the natives were watching and he was in a position of power.

    He worked up enough strength to shoot his rifle and a roar of excitement overtook the silence. Although, the elephant did not die or even fall. He slowly hit the ground, and Orwell shot it again in the same spot hoping to do more damage. Orwell described the state of the elephant as, “powerless to move and yet powerless to die.” At this point, Orwell felt the need to put an end to the elephants misery. His small rifle could not get the job done, so he fled the scene. The elephant took half an hour to die, and by that same afternoon, he was stripped to his bones by the native poeple.

    Legally, Orwell did the right thing by shooting the “must” elephant. It is a part of his line of work to keep the natives safe at any cost. Orwell used this sense of being legally right as a sense of comfort, but he knew deep down that he had only shot the elephant to avoid looking like  a fool in front of the crowd.  The people had influenced him to do this act that he did not feel was right or necessary. He let his “duties” as a police officer drown out his inner thoughts and morals.

    This was a defining moment in Orwell’s life. He had come to realize to that he let the native people influence him to do something he didn't feel was right all because it was legally the police officer’s job. He did not shoot the elephant because he felt it was necessary or because he wanted to fill his police duties. He shot the elephant to avoid looking foolish in front of the large crowd of natives. Orwell saw his job in a different light that day. He realized he was responsible for killing the beast no matter what his heart and mind were telling him to do. He was stuck between looking foolish and impressing this large crowd, and like many others would have done, he impressed the crowd.

    They didn’t care that his rifle was too small to kill it in one shot. They didn’t care the mahout could handle the situation when he came back. They didn't care that he did not want to shoot the elephant. Their presence, cheering, and concern with the dead Indian man was enough to make Orwell commit this act. The conflict within his own head was not enough to make him stand up for what he believed in. It was not enough to make him drop the rifle and leave. It was not enough to prevent him from shooting the elephant, and he had to live with himself and what he had done forever. The fact that he was legally in the right was not enough to comfort him.

    As Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four are fictional but based on true events, "Shooting an Elephant" is an event that actually happened in George Orwell’s life as a police officer in Burma. Orwell exposes himself in his essay. He is not ashamed to say that he would have looked like a fool had he not shot the elephant. He explains how he could not stand up for what he thought was right and wrong. He did what was expected of him and it takes a lot of strength for a man to show his vulnerability. Other officers, and mean in general, would have not batted an eye at the thought of shooting the elephant. They would have seen it as their legal duty and protecting their people and done it without hesitation. Orwell has himself in a vulnerable state in his essay that he is not ashamed of. Though his actions at the scene did not represent his true feelings, his essay explains in detail what was going in his head. What went on in his head was went beyond his duties as a police officer and even beyond protecting the people. His opinion was unpopular and not appreciated at the scene, but Orwell felt it was necessary to express them in his essay.

                                                                                              Works Cited

Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." Jalic Inc, 2003. The Literature Network. http://www.online-literature.com/ 

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Orwell, George. "Biography of George Orwell." The Complete Works of George Orwell, 2003. http://www.george-orwell.org                     /l_biography.html. Web. 2 May 2018.

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