February 25: Compare your reaction to Orwell’s if you were in a similar situation
“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay by George Orwell about his decision whether or not to kill an animal just so he could be liked by the society he lived in. He was sent to lower Burma, where he was supposed to make the people living there follow the laws the British set. Orwell didn’t believe in changing the way these people lived, so he didn’t force them to change. In fact, he was trying to avoid them as much as possible. The Burmans hated Orwell as much as he hated being there. An incident occurred, that changed his perspective and theirs. An elephant escaped from its owner and started rampaging through town. In its rampage, it killed a man. The town wanted Orwell to do something about the elephant, so he sent for a gun. Once the towns people knew he was going to do something about the elephant, they followed Orwell, waiting for him to kill it. Orwell had an internal battle, deciding whether or not to kill the elephant. He didn’t want to give in and kill the elephant because thats what the people wanted him to do, he wanted to do what he wanted. In the end, he shot the elephant and killed it.
For a look into the essay by George Orwell, click here.
It is hard to say what I would do if I was in Orwell’s situation. He was in a situation where it didn’t matter what he did, he was still the bad guy and was hated by everyone. To the Burmans he was an intruder. When the incident occured with the elephant, the village was waiting to know what he was about to do. He responded to the situation as if he was giving in to peer pressure. Even though he was debating on whether or not to shoot at it, he still gave in. He did what made the villagers respect him.
Like I said before, it’s hard to say what I would do if I was in that situation. I would weigh out all of my options and the consequences that go with them. I would think about everything, what my country would think, hwo I would feel after doing it, and what everyone else would think. I know I should only do the right thing, but what everyone thinks effects the outcome. I’m one of those people that cares about what others think.
If I had a choice to decide whether or not to do a job that I didn’t agree with, I wouldn’t do it.
Here is a video I found on youtube about “Shooting an Elephant”. It was a class project from another school.
Not only am I suppose to write down my ideas, I am also sippose to respond to other peoples blogs. I responded to Tyler’s blog. So to see what I wrote, check out his blog at tylerjcline.learnerblogs.org or by clicking here.
on May 18, 2008 at 8:26 pm
Hey, Steph! I found it interesting how you said that no matter what he did he was the bad guy in the Burman’s eyes and was hated by everyone. I’d never thought of it that way, but it’s true. Therefore you’d have thought that Orwell would have considered this, that it didn’t matter what he did, he wouldn’t earn the crowd’s respect, but peer pressure can be extremely over-whelming. Especially when it isn’t friendly peer pressure. I think everyone can associate with doing something they’d rather not to appease everyone else. I agree with your saying you’d weigh the consequences that go along with the decisions, but I also believe that at when Orwell was in that situation it was probably hard for him to think rationally because of all the Burman’s pressuring him and Orwell wanting to appease them.