I just finished reading George Orwell's short essay "Shooting an Elephant" for (I think) the third or fourth time. However, I don't remember the essay having such an impact on me before. Perhaps I was too young to truly appreciate or realize the message before. Reading it again made me almost want to cry at the barbaric truths that seep through each passage.
I especially love the passage in which the main character reveals that he knows very clearly that he should not shoot the elephant, in fact, he cringes at the thought; However, the thought of looking like a fool in front of the "natives" is just more than he could possibly bear. In essence, he realizes that he has in fact trapped himself into a mask that he chose to wear; that he must act a certain way because it is how the "natives" expect him to act and doing anything contrary to that would somehow take away from him and his perceived image. What is so ironic about the story is that the "natives" literally despise him, and yet he is willing to perform an act that would haunt him for the rest of his life, an act he knows is utterly and completely immoral to him, so that he doesn't have to deal with the "natives" criticism.
I think what I find so haunting about this essay is the blinding truths that bind the story, and how sadly they reflect the majority of the human race.
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2 comments:
I, too, am writing a small paper on Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" and I wanted you to know that I used this post as a base to expand. Thank you
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