Transcript Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell

“Shooting an Elephant”
by George Orwell
Seminar
In your groups, discuss your
first thoughts after reading
the story, using the
questions on the worksheet
to get you started.
Compare your answers on the
worksheet – it’s OK if you
have different interpretations!
Discuss examples of literary
devices used in the story.
Were they successful?
Why use literary devices?
Simile
“It was an immense crowd… They
were watching me as they would
watch a conjurer about to perform
a trick. They did not like me, but
with the magical rifle in my hands
I was momentarily worth
watching.”
Metaphor
“I could feel their two thousand
wills pressing me forward,
irresistibly… in reality I was only
an absurd puppet pushed to and
fro by the will of those yellow
faces behind.”
Metaphor
“in every crisis he has got to do
what the ‘natives’ expect of him.
He wears a mask, and his face
grows to fit it…”
Symbolism
“He was lying on his belly with
arms crucified and head sharply
twisted to one side. His face was
coated with mud, the eyes wide
open, the teeth bared and
grinning with an expression of
unendurable agony.”
What does Orwell mean
when he writes that he was
“theoretically…all for the
Burmese and all against their
oppressors”?
Does Orwell believe these
conflicting feelings can be
reconciled? What does he
mean by “the utter silence
that is imposed on every
Englishman in the East”?
What is the significance of
the statement “I perceived in
this moment that when the
white man turns tyrant it is
his own freedom that he
destroys.”
What does the elephant
symbolize?
Compare Orwell’s story with
excerpts from the poem by
Rudyard Kipling.
“The White Man’s Burden”
Take up the White Man's
burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen
peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
…
Take up the White Man’s
burden –
The savage wars of peace –
Fill full the mouth of Famine,
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
(The end for others sought)
Watch sloth and heathen folly
Bring all your hope to nought
…
Closure Activity
Choose one of the following activities to
individually complete on your own piece
of paper.
1. Create a political cartoon about British
imperialism from either the British or
the colonized perspective (not using
elephants )
2. Rewrite one portion of the story from a
Burmese person’s point of view (at
least 2 paragraphs)