George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”In ‘Shooting an Elephant,’ George Orwell finds himself in a difficult situationinvolving an elephant. The fate of the elephant lies in his hands. Only he canmake the final decision. In the end, due to Orwell’s decision, the elephant laydying in a pool of blood. Orwell wins the sympathy of readers by expressing thepressure he feels as an Anglo-Indian in Burma, struggling with his morals, andshowing a sense of compassion for the dying animal.
Readers sympathize with Orwell because they can relate to his emotions in themoments before the shooting. Being the white ?leader,? he should have been ableto make an independent decision, but was influenced by the ?natives? (Orwell101). Orwell describes his feelings about being pressured to shoot theelephant: ?Here I was the white man with his gun, standing in front of theunarmed crowd – seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I wasonly an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind(101). Everyone has been in a situation in which he or she has been expected tobe a leader. For different reasons people are looked to as leaders, sometimesbecause of their race, ethnicity, or heritage. In this case, Orwell waspictured as a leader because he was British and he worked for the British Empire.Readers are able to relate to the fact that he does not want to be humiliatedin front of the Burmese. He declares, ?Every white man’…
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