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Literary Devices
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
“Shooting an Elephant” is a tricky piece of writing to categorize. Some Orwell biographers consider it to be a non-fiction essay, while others refer to it as an autobiographical short story (since Orwell did not explicitly state that this was a true story from his life). Either way, it is clear that this story was heavily informed by Orwell’s experience as a police officer in Burma in the 1920s. The opening lines of the story establish that Orwell is pulling directly from his time in Burma:
In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter.
Here, Orwell—speaking in first person—describes being stationed in Moulmein, the part of Burma that he did, in fact, serve in as a sub-divisional police officer. That “anti-European feeling” that Orwell describes is also based in reality. The British Empire had been controlling Burma for 100 years at that point and native Burmese people had been resisting said colonial rule for decades. Whether or not the specific details of the story are true—such as the scene in which Orwell dramatically shoots and kills an elephant—the story clearly contains many autobiographical (and historically accurate) elements.
Related Themes:
