S—
The subject of George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” is how people are forced to act by the expectations of others. The way most people act is illustrated through the choice the policeman made to kill the elephant because of the bystanders that we watching. When he chose to shoot the elephant, he was choosing the people watching over the animal’s life—all so that he would not look like a fool in front of the crowd.
O—
“Shooting an Elephant” was written in 1936. The story’s time of creation is displayed through the language of the text; the speaker spoke in a different form of English than what is used in modern times. For example, the policeman doesn’t use contractions, but instead always says “could not” or “does not.” Also, he uses very uncommonly used words such as “roundabout.” The probable place of the story’s creation is Burma. The readers know this because the policeman constantly refers to the natives in the story as “the Burmans.”
The time and place of the story’s creation influence the story by showing the days where Britain still owned Burma. The readers can infer this because of how the policeman talks about the natives; he says, regarding how natives treat him and other Europeans, “As a [European] police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.”
A—
George Orwell’s specific audience for “Shooting an Elephant” is people who choose their appearance over what is right. The author’s target audience is identified through the policeman’s intentions to kill the elephant. This reveals the target audience because it shows that the author is trying to get through to those people who choose appearance by using emotional appeal, as well as the unsaid question, “Would you kill an elephant to please people?” Orwell is showing the audience how they appear to others when they make the choices that they do, simply for their peers’ approvals.
P—
Orwell’s purpose in this story is to show that one should not make decisions based on what others want; he or she should base their choices on what is right. This purpose is illustrated with the mindset of the policeman. For example, the man thinks, “I did not in the least want to shoot [the elephant],” but then he changes his mind after he sees the crowd waiting for him to shoot, “And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” These two quotes show that when being pressed by people, one will easily do anything to please them, because the man’s original intent was simply to let the elephant go. However, when the crowd was waiting for him to shoot, he felt obligated to do so.
S—
George Orwell, who died at age 46, believed that what the British were doing in 1936 against Burma was wrong. This value is illustrated by his reference to imperialism as an “evil thing.” He used this term early on in the story to refer to the British Empire and continued to illustrate them as oppressors throughout the story.
Orwell, who used a pen name (his real name was Eric Allan Blair), also believes that local British law enforcement were pushed by the will of the Burman natives. As the narrator stood there with the rifle in his hands, he realized he “was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those” native Burmans. The man with the gun should have been in charge, rather than the crowd that surrounded him.
Tone—
George Orwell articulates a frustrated and conflicted attitude about how people are forced to act by the expectations of others in “Shooting an Elephant.” These attitudes are expressed by his frustration with the way the policeman is sneered at, insulted, and assaulted. His conflicted feelings as to whether or not to shoot the elephant are really a projection of his opposition of the British rule of these people.
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