Shooting an Elephant

Shooting an Elephant is a short story by George Orwell

Literary "senses"

Literal

• a British colonial policeman shoots an elephant that rampaged and killed a local man

Allegorical

• the elephant as colonized India

Moral / Anagogical

• the moral ambivalence of British colonial rule
  • necessary because the elephant needs to be controlled
  • unnecessary because the elephant would better be controlled by the local population