Shooting the Elephant

The subject of George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant is saving face in front of others. Orwell shows this moral dilemma through the struggle of police officer’s decision to shoot the elephant simply because he was in front of a crowd. Had he not been in front of people he needed to impress, he would have never shot the elephant. The police officer shot the elephant just so he would not look like a fool. The combination of being hated by the very people watching, knowing the people expected him to shoot the elephant and his own ego caused the police officer to fall prey to this idea of saving face or preserving his dignity.

Shooting an Elephant was written during a very oppositional time. The police officer was stationed in Burma in 1936 during the takeover of Burma by the British Empire. As an officer of the British, aiding in this hostile takeover, he was hated. After being treated with disdain, the police officer felt it necessary to take control of the elephant situation.

George Orwell’s specific audience for Shooting an Elephant is those who have had to or will feel the need to save face in front of others. The author’s target audience is revealed by the subject of the essay, which is doing things that are expected of you so you will not appear foolish. With great detail, Orwell reaches out to his audience and allows them to recall a time when they were faced with a decision to save face.  

Orwell’s article was written to show the dilemma of humans struggling with the decision to do what they know is right or do what makes them look better in the eyes of their audience. As Orwell details, the police officer made the decision to shoot the elephant because the Burmese collected as an audience and expected him to kill the elephant. The article ends with the police officer saying “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” This is the lesson most everyone has learned in some form. The police officer justified the shooting because it was legal to do it but he simply did it to save face.
George Orwell’s writings often focus on his beliefs of social injustice. This article is no exception. Orwell expressly shows the division of the British and the Burmese. The social heirarchy of the Burmese people is clearly shown when many of them feel it was not of importance that the elephant killed a “coolie”, an Indian which is very obvious a second class citizen. Also, the owner of the elephant was of no regard because he too was an Indian. Orwell was able to help the police officer justify his decision by showing that this group of people did not matter. Orwell also believes that it is human nature to want to preserve your dignity. The article shows this with the police officers dilemma and the decision he made to save face.
Orwell’s use of imagery helps the reader understand the extreme pressure the police officer was under. The description of the trampled Indian “..with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud..” gives a grotesque image to the reader. Also, Orwell uses imagery when describing the immense crowd. He describes the crowd as “it blocked the road for a long distance on either side. I looked at the sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes.”

Orwell shows a dramatic and frustrating attitude about saving face in Shooting an Elephant. These attitudes are expressed by in the story Orwell weaves of a divided group and the pressures exerted to behave a certain way. The story show dramatic details of the elephant’s rampage and the frustration felt by the police officer to preserve his dignity – to save face. The details of the elephant’s rampage is needed to set up the frustration, it gives the police officer reason to kill the elephant. As the article ends, it clearly shows that even though there was reason, morally the police officer is frustrated.