Shooting an Elephant

     ‘Shooting an Elephant’ is a short story that describes the shooting of an elephant. The narrator of the story is the one following through with the action of shooting the animal. The author includes an abundance of description throughout the story that allows readers to imagine the scene without seeing it. The plot of the text is brutal and heart-breaking. However, the author let’s readers see that people in the world are cruel. 

    The text is a short story that is written in the first person. This can be seen with the repeated pronoun ‘I’ throughout the text. It is made up of four large paragraphs that include both longer and shorter sentences. While the narrator does not directly provide their personal perspective of the actions taking place, the amount of description makes it clear. The text begins with describing what the narrator will have to do and goes into depth about their surroundings; ‘twenty-five yards’ and ‘ground was soft mud’. The second paragraph introduces the crowd as part of the setting and the action of shooting the elephant about to occur. The third paragraph is the shooting of the elephant, going into great detail on the crowd and the elephant's reaction to the bullets. The final paragraph is the aftermath of shooting the elephant.

    The descriptive language used by the author is blunt and hard to read. In doing this, readers are allowed to understand how horrible the plot of the story really is. Each step of the story is explained in full detail; the author never holding back on the reality of life. This can be shown with the words ‘shot’ and ‘fired’ repeated throughout the story. By doing this, the author is showing how vicious the act really was; the awfulness is not being hidden from the readers as it was not hidden from the shooter himself. More use of adjectives go along with the description of the elephant itself. The elephant is described as ‘Shrinken, shrunken, immensely old’ after being shot. The author also includes the terms ‘Pale pink throat’ and ‘red velvet’ to describe what parts of the elephant are most clear to them after being shot. ‘Tortured breathing’ and ‘in great agony’ describe the feelings of the elephant from the narrorator as he is forced to watch him slowly die. For anyone, this would be traumatizing. Because of this, the author puts everything into words, forcing the readers to have to imagine all of the pain they are having to witness.  

    Along with the elephant, the author also describes the crowd in a very abrupt way. While doing this, the readers are shown what the author is feeling about the elephant and the people around them. Those who go to watch the shooting of an elephant are evil towards the author. This is shown with the phrase ‘Theater curtain go up at last’. This gives readers the impression that all of the people watching don’t care that they are horrible people. The crowd is cruel towards the narrator as their presence and voices are described with the personification ‘Devilish roar of glee’. 

    While the author does not directly state their feelings about their actions, the use of adjectives and adverbs throughout text point readers in the direction of the true tone of the text. For example, in the first paragraph, the first two sentences include the phrase ‘I ought to’. This shows that the narrator does not want to follow through with the actions ahead. It suggests that they may possibly be forced to shoot the elephant. 

    The author also includes repetition to reference people in general and make the readers feel more connected. The author states, ‘one never does’ and ‘one would have thought’, also showing that the narrator has performed the actions before. The author also describes the elephant and crowd in a way that shows the author's disappointment in himself. For example, the elephants ‘tortured gasps’ are described as ‘steadily as the ticking of a clock’, showing that the narrator sees every little detail of agony that was cause to the elephant and how the author feels as thought his regret and pain of the elephant will never dissipate. 

    The author also includes linked phrases from the beginning of the text to the end. For example,  in the first paragraph, the ground is being described as ‘soft mud’ that would ‘sink at every step’. This is then linked back in the middle of the text talking about the ‘Burmans’ and how they raced past him ‘across the mud’. By doing this, the author is changing the setting from shooting an elephant to showing the setting around the action. The author also includes reference to other animals in the first paragraph, describing the narrator's chances as a ‘toad under a steam-roller’.