Shooting an elephant

IB year 2

JOURNAL ASSIGNMENT 3

Shooting an Elephant

1. CONTENT

Ø      how is the British empire/imperialism described in the story

Ø      how are the natives portrayed

Ø      how is the elephant portrayed – what are attitudes of different characters in the story  to the elephant / does it symbolize anything? which words/phrases are significant in the description of the elephant?

Ø      why does the shooting come so late in the story? why is it so long? what else strikes you about it?

Ø      did the narrator save his face? did you sympathize with him? what kind of a person is he?

Ø      is there any evidence in the story of him changing his perspective/perception of the event?

Ø      why, in your opinion, did Orwell write this story?

2. FORM

Ø      where is the climax in this story?

Ø      name the conflicts that you can identify

Ø      short stories often show the irony of life; is it true for this story?

Ø      which words/phrases/passages do you consider to be especially significant?

EXTRA CREDIT

Was there any sort of foreshadowing in “The Story of An Hour”?

Ad. 1

Ø      In Orwell’s “Shooting an elephant”, the British empire is portrayed as very weak, artificial creation. Not only the narrator criticises empire, he is also a living example, that white’s dominion in the East is only an illusion.

Ø      On one hand, the narrator ideologically symphatised with the natives as a people oppressed by the British empire, on the other he was full of personal reluctance to them. Natives seem to be vengeful (their attitude towards Europeans), bloodthirsty (will to shoot an elephant) and egoistic (no one cared about the owner of the elephant). Those features leave the reader with the image of Burmians as a rather primal being. Europeans tend to feel superior to Burmians in some sort of a way, however those are the natives who mostly influence imperialists behaviour. In “Shooting an Elephant, natives are considered a mass, with no place for individuality. Although, liczebność is their source of power.

Ø      In the story, we get to know, that elephant is considered a precious source of income, that’s why killing it is a serious crime. It is supported by younger officers, who criticise narrator for shooting the beast, as they even mentioned it is more valuable, than life of a native. Burmians showed rather neutral attitude: they did not care about its’ life, as it did not belong to any of them. They insisted on narrator shooting him, as it would provide them entertainment and they could make practical use of its body leftovers. The fact it killed one of them also helped them justify the shooting. Despite narrator hears a lot about the damage elephant caused, when he gets to meet the animal, it seems to be harmless. “And at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow.” “(...)with that grandmotherly air that elephants have(...)”. Even when it was dying, the elephant remained calm.

Ø      Not the shooting itself was important in the story, but the reflections whether to do it or not. The act of killing elephant itself, was a resolution of the story – narrator gave in to the Burmans. Orwell prolonged the process of death on purpose of emphasizing the mental suffering of narrator, that shooting was not in his opinion the right thing to do.

Ø      Narrator certainly showed his sumbission, which lead for sacrificing life of an innocent creature for his image among people he did not even care about. I do not think it was the right thing to do, because there was nothing which could change Burmans outlook on opressors. He just avoided temporary compromitation. However, the narrator admitted all of that and drawn far going conclusions, which makes me, privately, symphatise with him. It is impossible to avoid mistakes, but it is important to learn from them.

Ø      Yes, there’s a very clear one: First he says: “I knew with perfect certainty that i ought not to shoot him”.  Then comes the moment of reflection of  how could he get ashamed in front of Burmans. Afterwards he confesses: “There was only one alternative. I shoved the cartridges into the magazine and lay down on the road to get a better aim(...).”

Ø      I reckon, that Orwell wrote this story for a purpose of declaring his views on the imperialism. He was born in Burma, so he could easily express what white man experiences there – the dilemma between personal hatred towards natives and sympathy for them as a victims of imperialism.

Ad. 2

Ø      The climax of the story is when narrator realises the pressure he is put under and has to decide whether to shoot the elephant or not.

Ø      Conflicts:

o       narrator vs Burmans

o       inner conflict of narrator

o       whites vs natives

o       elephant owner vs society

Ø      Yes, it is perfectly true. The fact of how short the story is, exposes brutally, that it takes no time for a man to lose all the values he was proud of.

Ø      “And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd – seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.”

This quote represents story’s view on imperialism.

“I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.”

It explains behaviour of the narrator.

EXTRA CREDIT

There’s certainly a foreshadowing in “Story of an hour”. There’s even a whole paragraph, which is meant to set reader aware, that something important is going to happen.

“She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength. But now there was a dull stare in her eyes, whose gaze was fixed away off yonder on one of those patches of blue sky. It was not a glance of reflection, but rather indicated a suspension of intelligent thought.”