Blog 4.4

The short story ‘Shooting an Elephant ’, is an essay written in 1936 by George Orwell during his time as a young policeman in Burma. The main characters in the story are the narrator and the elephant. The narrator is then battling his inner conscience and is debating whether or not he should go through and kill the elephant. The essay is structured chronologically and focuses primarily on the narrator's thoughts and emotions throughout. He uses the same expression “I ought to” throughout the essay to show how often he is questioning himself. Then once he does decide to kill the elephant he deeply regrets and flees from the situation. It gives in-depth descriptions of the elephant's death and a graphic account of the shooting itself. Everything is explained in a clear and structured way. The form, structure, and language are unique and used effectively for this story.

In ‘Shooting an Elephant’ the form is being narrated in first person tense and often they use phrases like “I could” and “I should” when describing the narrator’s thoughts of what to do. Due to this, the story is more informal and therefore, more personal. You can see the emotions the narrator is going through while he is faced with this situation. Once the narrator does decide to kill the elephant he feels an instant regret and mentions “In the end, I could not stand it any longer.” The narration is fit to almost feel as if it is a story while reading, but is in the form of an essay with long chronological descriptions. The ultimate goal of the short story is to show disorder and panic after doing something you regret deeply.

The structure throughout the short story is in a stream of consciousness and the way it’s written makes you feel exactly what the writer is feeling. It talks about what is going on in the narrator’s mind throughout the conflict that he is faced with the elephant. The writer starts off knowing he needs to kill the elephant and it is “perfectly clear to me what I ought to do.” However, can’t bring himself to do it and says “ought to” throughout his second-guessing. He can’t let other people down of what they want him to do. Once he does decide to kill the elephant “I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang,” you can instantly feel his regret once he shoots the animal. The structure is written in long paragraphs except for the last line which shows just how quickly he fled the situation. Since he couldn’t handle what he had just done anymore. 

 The writer uses lots of figurative strategies in the language of the short story to appeal to the reader’s emotions about his situation. There are lots of metaphorical expressions like saying the elephant is as strong as a machine. “If the elephant charged and I missed him, I should have about as much chance as a toad under a steamroller.” As well towards the end he says “It seemed dreadful to see the great beast lying there. As the reader, then you can only picture how big the elephant must’ve been and how hard killing it must’ve been. Many similes are used after the elephant was shot like saying “Blood like Velvet,” to give vivid descriptions. It presents a visual image that shows the gravity of death. As well as saying that the shooting as a theatrical scene “the crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh.” Lastly, The reputation of the modal verb “Ought to” and “could” shows the writer’s thinking and how he needs to kill the elephant but can’t bring himself to do it. The modal verb expresses the necessity of the situation.