Running head: MORE THAN A STORY

More Than a Story

Tarter
Ivy Tech Community College

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We all began this reading assignment with the original belief that it was going to be about
shooting an elephant. At the beginning of George Orwells story, he explains what his life was
like in Burma, but then transitions into a story perceived to be about a situation he had with an
elephant that had gone a must (Orwell, 1936). This is so much more than a story about an
elephant and any ethical dilemma we may have originally thought it to be about. It is a story
about George Orwells life living within the Burmese culture and government. It is in a sense, a
parable of sorts. We will explore how Mr. Orwell looked at the government he worked for, all the
while opposing it.
When Orwell finished high school, he was unable to go to college. He decided to follow
in his parents footsteps and joined the Indian Civil Service. He later joined the Indian Imperial
Police in Burma in 1922 at the age of nineteen (Johnson, 1993). The beginning of this story is set

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in Moulmein, the third largest city in Burma (Orwell, 1936). He starts off with the comment, I
was hated by large numbers of people the only time in my life that I have been important
enough for this to happen to me (Orwell, 1936). I believe he means that he was important
enough because of his position within the Imperial Police. After all, he was a European who was
thought of as an outsider and a police officer. This explains the hatred people felt for him.
George Orwell finishes his opening paragraph by letting us know that he really hated the
way he was treated for being an officer. He did not like to be ridiculed. I am sure we all can agree
that no one likes to be yelled at, laughed at and humiliated in public, or anywhere else for that
matter. I believe that he was treated so poorly by the people of Burmese because of the color of
his skin. Perhaps it was just the fact that he was a part of the British government working with
the Imperial Police Department. If you take into consideration that racism is prevalent in any
nation, and that an authority figure is looked down upon within an oppressed society, you can see
why they would act this way. It is not right, but you can see how a people as a whole being
constantly beaten and put down would react in the manner that they did.
By the time Orwell is reaching the middle of his second paragraph he begins to confess to
liking the Burmese people in secret but being against their oppressors, the British (Orwell,
1936). He obviously had to have compassion on the Burmese because of the oppression they
were under. He did not like being in the position he was in torn between duty and compassion.
I think it was because he did not agree with how they were treated themselves. It is obvious that
he felt very guilty for the position he was in.
He describes very clearly how he witnessed the wretched prisoners huddling in the
stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred

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buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos (Orwell, 1936). He was angry about
the way they were treated but felt his hands were tied because, after all, he was an officer and a
part of the British Empire. I think he related to the Burmese people a little too. I think he also felt
oppressed himself by how he was treated. He probably felt like he was treated so poorly by them
because of who he represented not for who he really was. This is why he secretly liked them. In a
sense, he felt a part of them.
When he received the phone call to come and help the sub-inspector and the other Indian
constables find the elephant, I do not think it was because Orwell was the only one that could
handle the job. I believe it was because the labyrinth of squalid bamboo huts, thatched with
palmleaf, winding all over a steep hillside (Orwell, 1936) was too much for them to handle
alone. The definition of a labyrinth is an intricate structure of interconnecting passages through
which it is difficult to find ones way (Company, 1994), now add that to going up a hillside and
the more people looking for that elephant the better. He knew he was called upon because they
needed all the hands they could get.
At the point Orwell finds the elephants path, he gets a larger rifle and heads in its
direction. When he finds the elephant, he relies that it is no longer on a rampage and has
completely calmed down. What is he to do now?
He uses a lot of metaphors in his story. He makes the statement, they were watching me
as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick (Orwell, 1936). I believe they were
waiting for a show. After all, he did put away his smaller rifle and have someone go and get him
his larger one. The Burmese people were ready to watch the elephant be shot.

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He also mentions the fact that he was, only an absurd puppet a posing dummy
(Orwell, 1936), meaning that his hands were tied and the Burmese people were really running
the show. It was the fact that all of them (more than 2,000 people) were watching and waiting to
see what he would do, all the time knowing that he would in fact shoot the elephant because that
was what was expected of him. Now he makes the comment that, I did not want to shoot the
elephant (Orwell, 1936), but then turns around and does it anyway. So who is really running the
show? It is not him, he is just a cast member or puppet in the show they (the Burmese) are
running.
Now, Orwell was frightened to deal with the elephant. He admits to being a terrible shot
and, in fact, he did not want the natives (Orwell, 1936) to know he was. His main thought was
that if things were to go wrong when he shot the elephant and he missed, that the elephant might
come after him. Then two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on if
that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do
(Orwell, 1936). I now believe that he also felt a need to make sure he did not miss his shot or just
injure the elephant. It was imperative that he actually killed it so that he did not look the fool
(Orwell, 1936) in the eyes of the Burmese people. Orwell does a great job using irony in his
writings because when you read it for the first time you may read it literally for what it says in
print, while another person may read it and see the actual meaning that the author is trying to get
across using different techniques.
I think that the story did just that. My first reading of it was more focused on how he
portrays the Burmese people and his ethical dilemma in shooting the elephant. Now that I have
re-read it and picked it apart to find the actual meaning that lies beneath the words on the page, it

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becomes clearer that he is letting the reader know how he felt about being an Imperial officer and
how the treatment of the Burmese people made them react to him. It made for a much more
interesting read the second time around.

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References
Company, H. M. (1994). American Heritage Dictionary; Third Edition. New York, New York:
Dell Publishing.
Johnson, R. (1993). George Orwell Biography. Retrieved from
http://www.levity.com/corduroy/orwell.htm
Orwell, G. (1936). Shooting an Elephant. Retrieved from Shooting an Elephant and other essays:
http://www.online-leterature.com/orwell/887/