Shooting an Elephant
Shooting an Elephant
Unabridged
23 minutes
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Unabridged
23 minutes
Some articles contain affiliate links (marked with an asterisk *). If you click on these links and purchase products, we will receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support helps to keep this site running and to continue creating useful content. Thank you for your support!
From the publisher
"Shooting an Elephant" describes the experience of the English narrator, possibly Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma. Because the locals expect him to do the job, he does so against his better judgment, his anguish increased by the elephant's slow and painful death. The story is regarded as a metaphor for colonialism as a whole, and for Orwell's view that "when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys."
It was first published in the literary magazine New Writing in late 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 12 October 1948.
It was first published in the literary magazine New Writing in late 1936 and broadcast by the BBC Home Service on 12 October 1948.
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