Shooting an Elephant

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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