'Shooting an Elephant' Breakdown
This extract of writing is from ‘Shooting an Elephant’ by George Orwell. It’s a chronological story of the narrator dealing with the pressure of shooting an elephant or not shooting it and dealing with that guilt after doing so. The chronological order helps the reader follow along with what is happening during the scene and the thoughts of the narrator that happen in that moment in time.
As for language, the author uses a lot of descriptive words when describing the elephant’s death. This part of the story was the most detailed and focused upon. The reader can tell from the use of the language how moved and affected the author was after shooting the elephant. The author wanted the reader to experience the same impact it had on the narrator, however portraying it through words like ‘... stricken, shrunken, immensely old’ and ‘enormous senility’ that could be turned into pictures in the reader's mind. In addition the author uses strong similes to try to attempt putting the reader in the narrator’s place. “... much chance of a toad under a stream roller.” The power of this simile at the end of the first paragraph shows the power the elephant has compared to the author and how scared the author is of what the ‘great beast;’ could do if he missed and the elephant noticed his presence. Another thing, during the scene of the gun actually being shot at the elephant the narrator has a moment where time stops for him. This can be seen in the sentence that is used. “When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick… but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd.” This goes from a moment in time that has stopped for the narrator to a moment of action and noise from the crowd. This was also a moment of conflict between the man and the crowd just like his battle against himself and what he should do.
As for the tone of the extract, it’s surrounded by a tone of suffering and guilt. Throughout the whole thing there are indication words and sentences that hint at how the narrator feels and where his mind is. Examples are ‘frightful impact’, ‘no collapse but climbed’, ‘desperate slowness’ and ‘agony of it jolt his whole body’. Even though these sentences did describe the elephant when he was hit by the bullets, how something is described can hint on how it affected the character in this case it was suffering/guilt. It’s hard to see the guilt in those examples because as the story goes on so does this guilt. It can be symbolized how the man had shot the elephant three times already but yet continued to shoot it not because he enjoyed shooting something but because he could still hear its breath which meant it was alive and wanted it to be put out of its misery. However what makes this moment so significant is that the elephant is dead, it died on the third bullet when it fell. The man imagined it breathing. This can be seen after he had finished shooting it “The tortured gasps continued as steadily…” Before this quote the man had shot the great beast in its throat and heart several times. “... and poured shot after shot into his heart and down his throat. They seemed to make no impression.” This portrays the narrator’s guilt the best out of this extract of text. In the end he had to walk away because it was too much to handle to see the elephant ‘suffering’ and he was the one to cause it.
As for language, the author uses a lot of descriptive words when describing the elephant’s death. This part of the story was the most detailed and focused upon. The reader can tell from the use of the language how moved and affected the author was after shooting the elephant. The author wanted the reader to experience the same impact it had on the narrator, however portraying it through words like ‘... stricken, shrunken, immensely old’ and ‘enormous senility’ that could be turned into pictures in the reader's mind. In addition the author uses strong similes to try to attempt putting the reader in the narrator’s place. “... much chance of a toad under a stream roller.” The power of this simile at the end of the first paragraph shows the power the elephant has compared to the author and how scared the author is of what the ‘great beast;’ could do if he missed and the elephant noticed his presence. Another thing, during the scene of the gun actually being shot at the elephant the narrator has a moment where time stops for him. This can be seen in the sentence that is used. “When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick… but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd.” This goes from a moment in time that has stopped for the narrator to a moment of action and noise from the crowd. This was also a moment of conflict between the man and the crowd just like his battle against himself and what he should do.
As for the tone of the extract, it’s surrounded by a tone of suffering and guilt. Throughout the whole thing there are indication words and sentences that hint at how the narrator feels and where his mind is. Examples are ‘frightful impact’, ‘no collapse but climbed’, ‘desperate slowness’ and ‘agony of it jolt his whole body’. Even though these sentences did describe the elephant when he was hit by the bullets, how something is described can hint on how it affected the character in this case it was suffering/guilt. It’s hard to see the guilt in those examples because as the story goes on so does this guilt. It can be symbolized how the man had shot the elephant three times already but yet continued to shoot it not because he enjoyed shooting something but because he could still hear its breath which meant it was alive and wanted it to be put out of its misery. However what makes this moment so significant is that the elephant is dead, it died on the third bullet when it fell. The man imagined it breathing. This can be seen after he had finished shooting it “The tortured gasps continued as steadily…” Before this quote the man had shot the great beast in its throat and heart several times. “... and poured shot after shot into his heart and down his throat. They seemed to make no impression.” This portrays the narrator’s guilt the best out of this extract of text. In the end he had to walk away because it was too much to handle to see the elephant ‘suffering’ and he was the one to cause it.
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