Shooting an Elephant

1 Why do the Buramese resent the British?
2 Why did the British officer kill the elephant?
3 Why did the older and younger native men have opposite views on the killing?

“Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, tells the conflicts and inner insecurities of a British colonial officer in a poor foreign country, Moulmein Burma. The story begins with directly telling the readers how he is hated by large numbers of people and the anti-European feelings were bitter. However, the officer was secretly against the British and was for the natives. He could never reveal that, because he knew he would never fit in with the Burmese culture and could not betray his own country.

The British officer got a call about an elephant on the loose that is “ravaging the bazaar,” his duty was to capture and shoot the elephant. While trying to find the elephant, he struggled making a decision if he should or should not kill the animal. Many of his insecurities got the best of him when he faced the elephant. I think his biggest insecurity was the huge crowd of the excited Burmese people. “But I did not want to shoot the elephant” said the British officer, yet he knew everyone would laugh at him for going all the way to the elephant with the rifle in his hand. Then the officer said, “It was perfectly clear to me what I ought to do.” This comes to my question; why did the British officer kill the elephant? I believe he felt completely obligated and forced by the crowd of natives to shoot the elephant, as he said, “pushed to and fro by the will of these yellow faces.” The officer did not want to look like he could not do his job and then have all the natives laugh and call him a coward. Also, he knew it was his duty as an officer to kill the elephant even though he felt it was wrong. I believe he felt really guilty at first killing the elephant, because it was minding its own business eating in a field when he first came in contact with it. When he ended up shooting the elephant it took him awhile to accept it. Soon enough it gave him a sense of power as an officer, also showing that he was legally in the right.