The Question and Answer section for Shooting an Elephant is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.
Orwell is a policeman, a representative of the British regime and an occupier of Burma: he was the face of oppression and subjugation.
In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been...
The narrator's dilemma was whether or not he should shoot the elephant. The elephant, which had recently been ravaging the bazaar and had killed a man in its rampage was now calm. Thus, Orwell, was torn between shooting the animal who was deemed...
The power dynamic of the colonizer-colonized is reversed in this instance as Orwell feels himself, not a puppet of the Empire, so much as a puppet of the crowd. It’s them for whom he must perform. In that way, they are the ones with power. This is...
