The purpose of Shooting an Elephant seems to be asking for an opinion on his actions, whether what he did was right or wrong. The main theme of the essay be based on the idea that our actions are often influenced by others, especially if we have a low self esteem and insecurities. This idea was expressed through the use of different literary features including the use of tone, voice, mood and characterization.
The tone of voice within Orwell’s essay seems to be very reflective, because he is explaining a past experience. He also makes reflections on his actions; for example, in the last line of the essay “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool”, he is questioning his actions.
The essay was written in first person, so it seems like that the voice of this essay belongs to Orwell himself; however, Orwell may have been writing about someone else, but in first person to make the story sound more personal, which makes it easier for the audience to relate to their own experiences.
There was a series of moods within Shooting an Elephant; this includes guilt, confusion, disgust and insecurity. The moods of the character reflect some of the character’s personality. When discussing the killing of the elephant, the character felt guilty, he said, “As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him”. This shows that he has a kind side as a person. Another example is when he demonstrated his insecurity (he thought that people would think that he is a fool if he hadn’t killed the elephant) “the sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do.”
The characterization within Orwell’s essay includes direct descriptions—when he was telling us that he “was [a] sub-divisional police officer of the town”—and also indirect characterizations, where the description is hidden in a sentence that was not used to describe that particular person (this includes the reflection of a character’s personality through their actions, their opinion on certain events, or through the character’s mood). An example of this would be “It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. At that age I was not squeamish about killing animals, but I had never shot and elephant and never wanted to…Besides, there was the beast’s owner to be considered. Alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds; dead, he would only be worth the value of his tusks, five pounds, possibly”, this quote demonstrates his sense of logic.
All of these elements were a key component of the main theme, which is that others often influence our actions, especially if we have a low self esteem or insecurities. The use of the different moods within this essay for example, can be felt after one of our actions are influenced by someone else, we may feel guilty for listening to the person, confused about whether what you did was right or wrong, disgusted about that fact that someone else has influenced our decision and that we did not listen to our heart, and it may be because of our insecurity that we listened to that other person in the first place. A personal experience that can be related to this story is school life. In school, cliques are in existence, and sometimes to be accepted, we are pushed to do certain things, which we do not feel is right or it may be hurting someone else, but because of our selfishness and the need to be popular, we will do it, which is similar to what this character did within the story.
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