Commentary on Shooting an Elephant

The purpose of the article is to provide information  about the experience of the narrator,called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma.The genre of the passage seems to be fiction.The tone of the passage seems to be sarcastic.



The narrator talks about how the rule of Burman's traps the writter into a system and that he was forced to shoot the elephant.This reflects his behaviour in the passage when he has to make a decision between whether to kill the elephant or not to. He knows that if he does not kill the elephant it will causes problems for the village but at the same time he knows that if he kills the elephant it would only be worth the value of his tusks,five pounds.


In the first passage, the term 'Grandmotherly' is used by the writer which shows that the writer have feelings and affection for the elephant.
In the passage " the crowd grew very still and a deep low , happy sigh as of the people who see the theatre curtain go up at last breathed from innumerable throats" describes the moment ,how the crowd were behaving when he was about to aim at the beast.He describes the "devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd when he pulled the trigger and shot the elephant".This sentence signifies the moment where people were shouting with cheers and happiness when the writer shots the elephant.The writer uses words like 'suddenly , stricken , shrunken , immensely old " that describes the poor condition of the elephant after the first shot.At the second shot he describes the elephant situation when the beast was using his full effort to climb into his feet.The writer takes the beast's soul with his fourth and fifth bullet.

The description of blood coming like red velvet shows writers mixed feelings.The passage end with sorrowful tone.