Topic > Orwell's Message in Shooting an Elephant

The East is not known, culturally, to be a logical group. Most magical fairy tales come from the East. Let's take the Arabian Nights for example. One of the main ways the East deals with information is through stories and prophecies. This is what they have always done. Now, this does not mean that science never existed in the East. No, in fact, some of the best inventions come from the East. However, the East, in general, is a culture that transmits stories above all. It is quite interesting for Orwell to say that although this was written many years before the wars and crisis in Iraq, yet it still rings true to the state of the time. After all, it was said and done, everyone in the world thought they knew what was going on, but that was far from the truth. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay It is quite interesting how the narrator, assuming it is Orwell himself, states that he had almost decided that the elephant was not present in the first place and be a lie. In the first paragraph he makes it clear that he has made up his mind about imperialism. The writer tells us that he had made a decision, but never mentions how. And as he gathers information about the elephant, he almost decides that the elephant isn't real at all. The lack of physical evidence almost convinced him that the elephant wasn't there. While just a few lines earlier he uses the word “profess” to describe what someone told him about the whereabouts of the elephant. This is a well done example for a compare and contrast situation between the Western way of gathering information and the Eastern way. Because it shows us how the writer or any Westerner, for that matter, would go about gathering information. So maybe he did a lot of research to realize that imperialism was bad, but what research did he do to learn about the elephant? He simply asked around. The two situations are different, of course, but one wonders if they are so different after all. The story cannot be taken literally, especially since we know that Orwell was a writer with vision and message in his writings. Orwell makes a perfect comparison between East and West. It also goes further, addressing the philosophical question of whether imperialism is good or bad. Orwell reflects on the many aspects of the period in which the British Raj ruled. Let's take the expression of the elephant in the room for example, let's assume that the elephant that Orwell is trying to shoot is an important problem or issue that he is trying to put an end to. We should ask a polite question here: What's the problem? Well, Imperialism, the elephant represents the British Raj. And the narrator is just trying to look for it, film it, and put an end to it. At the beginning of the story he starts asking around. The people there, who are under the rule of an imperialist, are aware but do not see the characteristics. So some of them don't even know where the elephant is while others only say where it went. This is not only the case with political news around the world, but it also speaks on a societal level. However, it is quite interesting that only when someone shouts, and only then does the narrator see a dead body on the ground, does he know for sure that the elephant was there. This is a reflection of how the West, or anyone else, does not come to help or is not convinced that a problem exists until some physical evidence appears, or in this case as in many other cases, someone dies. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay The essay is a reflection on so many levels. Orwell could be talking about.