Many people have a specific moment in their lives when their outlook and view on how they’ve been living changes. George Orwell happened to share his “defining moment” with everyone through one of his amazing pieces titled “Shooting an Elephant.” Orwell was born in June of 1903 and passed away in January of 1950. Throughout his life, he went through quite a bit of different circumstances, but he is mostly known for all of his amazing works. He is best known for his two most prominent books, 1984 and Animal Farm. When Orwell was first born, he lived in Motihari, India with his parents Ida Mabel Limonzin and Richard Walmesly Blair and his older sister Marjorie. Him, his mother, and his sister moved to England while his dad was stationed in India still. His younger sister, Avril, was born in 1904. Orwell was always writing, even as a young boy, it was always a passion of his. Orwell was sent to a boarding school in 1911, as most boys in England were. After this, Orwell received scholarships to both Eton College and Wellington College. However, after finishing his work at Eton College, he realized he couldn’t afford to attend a university, therefore, he joined the Indian Imperial Police Force in 1922. After five years of being on the police force, he resigned and began focusing on his writings. (Journalist, Author)

            This was when his “defining moment” essay was written. Orwell hated working for the Burmese police force because he didn’t approve of the way they treated people or of the way people treated him because of his association with the government. “Shooting an Elephant” was written in 1936 (“Shooting an Elephant”).  This essay explains how Orwell’s view on life was changed after a certain incident. He starts by explaining how he was hated and treated very poorly by everyone in Burma because he was associated with the European government by occupation. No one cared or took the time to ask Orwell, but he was anti-European government also because he didn’t enjoy the way they treated the people. One day, someone called him because there was an elephant on the loose that was apparently tearing up the town. When Orwell arrives, the elephant is nowhere in sight, but the town is messed up and there is a man how had been obviously crushed and killed by an elephant. Someone tells him that they’ve seen the elephant in the paddy fields and Orwell calls for the “elephant rifle,” even though he didn’t plan on shooting it. Orwell headed to the paddy fields with many Burmans following behind him, expecting him to handle the problem. When they arrived, the elephant was calm and was eating grass. However, the Burmans still expected him to kill the elephant and they had never showed this much interest in Orwell before. Therefore, Orwell killed the elephant and it died a slow, tragic death, just so Orwell could avoid looking like a “fool.”

            This situation changed Orwell for the better because from there on out, he acted off of his personal beliefs and morals, rather than what people expect or want of him. We can come to this conclusion because shortly after this incident, he resigns from the police force because of his personal hated of the government and he didn’t want to support it anymore. After that, Orwell focused on his writings because it was what he was truly passionate about. In each one of his writings, he was very direct in his opinions and he spoke his mind, even if some people weren’t going to agree with what he had to say.

            Years later, Orwell volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War for the republican side. “He did not join the International Brigade as most leftist did, but the little known Marxist POUM” (“George Orwell”). This is yet another example of how he didn’t follow what others wanted or what others were doing and he acted based off of his own beliefs.

            Orwell ended up getting remarried in 1949, after his first wife passed away in 1945 (“George Orwell Biography”). A couple months later, Orwell was asked by a friend that worked for a Foreign Office unit to give them a list of authors that he felt would be “unsuitable” for Information Research Department (IRD) authors. Orwell supplied them with a list of 37 authors that he viewed as unfit because of their pro-communist views (“Biography of George Orwell”). This is yet another example of how Orwell does what he believes is right, instead of what people think he should do.

            Another example of how we can assume that this incident affected his life in such a dramatic way is by looking at the job that he held while he shot the elephant. As mentioned earlier, he was a Burman police officer, which meant that he represented the European government. The government, at this particular time, was oppressing the Burmans and Orwell wasn't to fond of that. His dislike for oppression and authoritarianism shows through the books that he writes afterwards, such as Animal Farm and 1984. Throughout these books, we can see his true feelings about the oppression that the government was pushing onto their citizens and how much he disapproves of it. 

            This incident changed Orwell’s life for the better because it showed him that it doesn’t feel good to do something that’s against his morals, even though it’s what people are expecting. After “Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell lives his life based off of his personal beliefs, which is how everyone should live.

 

                                                       Works Cited

​

“Biography of George Orwell,” The Complete Works of George Orwell, 2003,

            http://www.george-orwell.org/l_biography.html, Accessed 28 April 2018.  

 

“George Orwell,” GeorgeOrwell.org, N.d., http://georgeorwell.org/SpanishCivilWar.htm,

            Accessed 28 April 2018.

 

“George Orwell Biography,” Encyclopedia of World Biography, N.d.,

            http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Orwell-George.html, Accessed 28 April 2018.  

 

“George Orwell Biography,” Biography, 15 Feb. 2018,

            https://www.biography.com/people/george-orwell-9429833, Accessed 28 April 2018.

 

“Shooting an Elephant,” Orwell.ru, 24 Sept. 2015,

            http://orwell.ru/library/articles/elephant/english/e_eleph, Accessed 28 April 2018.