Shooting an Elephant

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1936

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Essay Topics

The genre of “Shooting an Elephant” has been disputed: is it an essay or a short story? Although Orwell served as a British officer in Burma, aspects of the essay blur the lines of genre. Does it matter? Does reading the narrative as fact or fiction change the value of the messages it conveys?

Consider the ending of the essay: the narrator shoots the elephant and watches it slowly die. However, throughout the essay, he laments the task and says he does not want to shoot the elephant. If he stuck with his original intentions, how would that change the overall meaning of the essay; what would be the reaction of the natives; what could happen to him as a British officer?

The essay was written two years after Orwell’s first novel Burmese Days (1934), which also discusses British imperialism and the ills surrounding despotism. What else has been written that similarly captures Orwell’s message? Use another text (article, novel, or short story) to compare and contrast how the historical period is illustrated.