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Shooting an Elephant

In: English and Literature

Submitted By Meredith44
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Shooting an Elephant: The Death of Free Will George Orwell’s essay, Shooting an Elephant, was first published in 1936 in the autumn issue of New Writing, a London periodical. According to Adrian De Lange, Shooting an Elephant is one of Orwell’s most famous essays (Bloom 9). It cannot be established whether or not it was an actual account of something that Orwell experienced, something he witnessed or if it is solely fictitious, but is accepted that this essay was written out of Orwell’s experiences while he was a member of the Imperial India Police Force in Burma, described by Orwell as, “five boring years”
(Abrahams 194). There are many apparent and some not so apparent themes in this work. The harmful results of Imperialism, prejudice, and living by your own conscience are all valid and thought provoking themes. A theme that is also valid and beneficial to examine is the dangers of isolation and alienation and how those states can manifest in dangerous, even deadly ways.
Isolation and alienation can be very damaging on the human spirit. That damage can lead to actions that do irreparable harm to an individual as well as a community. In Shooting an
Elephant the narrator finds himself isolated because of his role as policeman in a foreign country and by the hostility and mistrust of the Burmese citizens he must police. This isolation leads to vulnerability and weakness when faced with mob pressure. When given into, peer pressure leads to death: death of life, death of conscience or death of free will. Because of his often difficult and lonely years as a sickly child, a vulnerable student at boarding schools and his disillusionment with civil service, Orwell was able to seamlessly weave themes of isolation and alienation throughout his essay, Shooting an Elephant. He was born in 1903 in Bengal, India and given the

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