CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

“Shooting an elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell. It describes

his experience when shooting an aggressive elephant while working as police

officer in Burma. This essay is also considered as an autobiography since it

contains his experience.

In this paper, the writer will analyze the essay by using author-oriented

approaches. It will analyze how the author sees himself, how the author sees his

environment, and how the author sees his native environment.

CHAPTER II

CONTENT

The author of “shooting an elephant” is George Orwell, he wrote this essay when

he worked as police officer in Burma. As police officer in the colonized area,

should always find himself as a victim of anti-European feeling by the native

society. He stated that he was an obvious target and was baited whenever it

seemed safe to do so.

However, Orwell didn’t blame Burmese of this situation. He blamed his own

country that make this miserable condition occurred in Burma. He thought that

imperialism was an evil thing. Therefore, he secretly served himself for Burmese

to fight against the oppressors. He drew this situation in the second paragraph of

the essay:

All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time I had already made up my

mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and

got out of it the better. Theoretically – and secretly, of course – I was all for

Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.

However, he can do nothing for this situation. He can only said his problem in the

silence like other Englishmen in the east do. He thought that “I was stuck between

my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil spirited little beast

who tried to make my job impossible”.

Toward his British environment, he thought that they were evil because the

imperialism is evil. They did a lot of dirty work, such as how they punish the

prisoner like an animal like he stated in the second paragraph of the essay:

The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey,

cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had

been bogged with bamboos – all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of

guilt.

Furthermore, Orwell saw the Burmese as the victim of imperialism. However,

they didn’t have an ability to fight against it, even a guts to start a riot. All they

can do is only insulting or jeering at European, of course if they thought they were

safe enough to do it.