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Shooting an Elephant This material remains under copyright in some jurisdictions, including the US, and is reproduced here with the kind permission of the Orwell Estate . The Orwell Foundation is an independent charity – please consider making a donation or becoming a Friend of the Foundation to help us maintain these resources for readers ...
Analysis. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. Because he is, like the rest of the English, a military occupier, he is hated by much of the village. Though the Burmese never stage a full revolt, they express their disgust by harassing Europeans at every opportunity.
1936. " Shooting an Elephant " is an essay by British writer George Orwell, first published in the literary magazine New Writing in late 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 12 October 1948. The essay describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as ...
- George Orwell
- United Kingdom
- 1936
- Unknown whether fiction or non-fiction
Mar 29, 2021 · By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University) ‘Shooting an Elephant’ is a 1936 essay by George Orwell (1903-50), about his time as a young policeman in Burma, which was then part of the British empire. The essay explores an apparent paradox about the behaviour of Europeans, who supposedly have the power over their colonial subjects.
Shooting an Elephant Summary. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of a town in the British colony of Burma. Because he is a military occupier, he is hated by much of the village. Though the Burmese never stage a full revolt, they express their disgust by taunting Orwell at every opportunity.
In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell draws on his own experiences of shooting an elephant in Burma. This elephant has been terrorizing a bazaar, but the narrator has serious misgivings ...
The British Empire is undeniably the dominant historical backdrop for “Shooting an Elephant.”. The empire expanded rapidly in the 19th century, and its territories spanned as far as New Zealand and India. Burma—now Myanmar—was where Orwell was stationed, and was acquired by the British in 1886. In 1948, a relatively short time after ...
