The writer explains an in-depth situation, as he decides whether to shoot an elephant.
He feels lost and pressured in an atmosphere where he feels forced to do something he does not want to do. His feelings towards shooting an elephant contrast to those of which around him.
The narrator makes use of the first-person point of view, this lets us as the readers really feel and think like the narrator. We completely understand his thoughts as he goes through his journey of shooting an elephant. Many excellent similes and other forms of figures of speech are placed in the text and are used to create effect.
The text is put in chronological order, and we see in the first paragraph, the narrator ponders on the decision to shoot the elephant. He feels obligated to do so as the crowd expects it from him. He states that killing an elephant is worse as it is a ‘large animal’. He may think this as elephants hold more value than a small bird for example. They are more expensive. Perhaps it’s worse to kill an elephant as they are more endangered creatures, compared to killing a small field mouse. All in all, elephants are huge, majestic creatures, it just feels wrong to kill one.
The writer describes the elephant to have a sort of ‘preoccupied grandmotherly air’, being an effect adjective to describe such a creature. This phrase may suggest the elephant as a superior being, with a superior attitude. The elephant is ‘preoccupied’, it is unconcerned about it’s surroundings. Describing the elephant as grandmotherly, is effective in its way of making the readers perceive the elephant as a creature to respect.
As we move to the second paragraph the tone changes, as the narrator decides he ought to shoot the animal. Compared to the first paragraph, the tone now changes to fast paced and pressured. The narrator would rather please the crowd then do the noble thing and spare the elephants life.
Once the narrator pulled the trigger a feeling of shame fell upon him. It’s explained that he ‘did not hear the bang or feel the kick’ - this suggests that he is shocked that he went through with it. Everything froze and stood still after that rush of adrenaline and his conscious kicked in. He felt guilty. The writer describes the crowd’s ‘glee’ as ‘devilish’ since they take pleasure in the pain of the elephant.
There are many figures of speech used in paragraph three, the authors purpose for this is to fully describe the pain the elephant goes through. The use of alliteration ‘suddenly stricken, shrunken’ is remarkably effective, as the readers can feel the animal is hurt. It happened so fast, and the elephant is helpless and powerless, it is unable to move. As the creature struggles to die the mood of sadness and empathy is created and we as readers feel bad for the elephant. Metaphors and similes such as ‘huge rock toppling’ and ‘reaching skyward like a tree’, are highly effective in creating imagery. As the elephant falls to the ground and reaches up with its trunk, as if it’s reaching up for help.
The narrator seems frustrated as he repetitively shoots the elephant trying to finish it off, perhaps he is feeling guilty as he is putting the animal through pain, but he cannot stop the pain. As the writer goes more into depth about the elephant’s pain and suffering the mood becomes sadder. Words and phrases such as ‘dying, very slowly’ ‘in great agony’ and ‘thick blood welled out... like red velvet’, all add to the mood of despair and pain.
These four paragraphs really allowed us as readers to climb into the mind of the narrator, feel what he felt and see what he saw. Many figures of speech were used to great effect, and we can tell that the narrator was peer pressured into something he regretted. The overall tone of the passage is guilt and the mood created was incredibly sad.
