A Defining Moment for George Orwell

There comes a point in someone’s life when they’re lives seem to “change”, whether it’s a good change or a bad change. Sometimes because of death, the experiences they have faced, or just from growing up and becoming a mature adult. In George Orwell’s case, his defining moment was shooting an elephant. In 1936, Orwell wrote “Shooting an Elephant.” It describes the turning point in his life and why that event changed his life from that moment on.

George Orwell was a police officer for the government in Moulmein, in lower Burma. Orwell was an “obvious target.” He was laughed at and made fun of constantly. He hated the Burmese and imperialism that occurred within his little town. Orwell said the sooner he “chucked up on his job and got out of it the better.” One day Orwell received a call about an elephant “ravaging the bazaar.” He was told to do something about it, so he grabbed his rifle and set out, unsure of what was going to happen. After Orwell had seen a dead man and the bazaar destroyed, he eventually found the elephant, “peacefully eating like a cow and showing no signs of must.” Orwell was followed by a large crowd of people which kept getting bigger and bigger. It was very clear that the last thing Orwell wanted to do was shoot the elephant but with the crowd of people behind him he knew he had to. After minutes of contemplating, Orwell knew that if he did not shoot the elephant, his job as a police officer would be next to impossible. He fired at the elephant a total of three times. It took a half an hour for the animal to die. He gained a guilty conscious that day, as he truly did not want to kill the elephant. According to Orwell, the owner was infuriated, but he was only an Indian and could do nothing about it. Many people said he was right for shooting the wild animal, while others said, “It was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie.” All in all, Orwell was relieved that the elephant had killed the coolie because it gave him a good enough reason to shoot an elephant (Orwell).

Orwell knew that shooting the elephant would live in his memory forever. This moment changed his life in many ways. Orwell hated the oppression and was against the tyranny, yet, he himself was a tyrant. He wanted change and the only way to do that was to tell others about his mistake. The only way to stop the oppression was by convincing the natives that they were the cause. The stories he wrote about later in life, such as 1984 and Animal Farm, were all about oppression and tyranny, and how people are the only ones who can change it and if they didn’t, tyranny would take over.

Orwell learned that people were only oppressed because they accepted the fact that they were. Although he was a policeman at the time, he hated the imperialism because he saw how oppressed the people were. Orwell was against it, even if he didn’t do anything about it during the time. He was a tyrant, though, the very thing that he hated. He shot an elephant because he felt pressure from the natives to do it. In the people’s eyes, he was supposed to be a tyrant so he had to shoot the elephant. That is what the natives expected of him and he didn’t want to look like a fool. Orwell had become something he wasn’t and this is why he become an oppressor (Video Spark Notes).

Orwell's’ defining moment changed his outlook on life, so much so, that he wrote books about it. For a while, he started to become something he wasn’t. This story about Orwell can help many people relate. He was judged just like so many people are today. They become something they aren’t and turn into a person they don’t want to be. This episode in his life changed the person that he was and realized he became oppressed because he let it happen to him. I bet if Orwell could go back to that moment and stand in front of the elephant, he wouldn’t shoot it.

Works Cited

Orwell, George. "Shooting An Elephant." The Literature Network. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Nov. 2016. <http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/887/>.

Video SparkNotes. “Video SparkNotes. Orwell’s 1984 Summary”. Youtube. 21 Oct. 2009. 2 Dec. 2016. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9JIKngJnCU>.