Module 1 - "Shooting and Elephant"

"Shooting an Elephant"

• Click on the short story, "Shooting the Elephant Links to an external site." by George Orwell.
• Read the short story,
• Use examples and quotes from the short story to support your answers.

Eric Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell (1903 - 1950) was born in India and then moved with his family back to England where his parents were from. Later, Orwell worked as an Indian Imperial Policeman in Burma. His experiences in Burma were partly what influenced this short story.

1. What was the job of the narrator of the story? 
2. What was the real reason the narrator gave for shooting the elephant?
3. Why do the Burmese want Orwell to shoot the elephant?
4. What do you think the real focus of this story is:  shooting an elephant or the phony nature of the British Rule in India?  Explain your answer.
5. What does Orwell mean when he says:

I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.  He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure  of a sahib.  ...He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.  
 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Links to an external site. by Lynn McClelland.