George Orwell’s short story "Shooting an Elephant" opens with the narrator discussing his setting and station in life at the time. The tone of the first two paragraphs is serious and conveys an individual’s conflict between long-held beliefs about the world and real-life experiences in that world. “I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing,” states the narrator at the beginning of paragraph two. He opens the story by declaring that he was hated by most people in Burma, speaking in the tone of one ostracized from the rest of the world. He also claims to hate his job, but at the same time is impressing upon the reader that his treatment by the Burmese people is awful. Later in that second paragraph, the narrator shares that “I could get nothing into perspective. I was young and ill-educated . . .” The overall tone expresses a highly stressful situation. The narrator clearly illustrates that he had solidly formed opinions concerning the British Empire, but that he was too uninformed to fully understand his own beliefs and role in the Burmese society.
“Shooting an Elephant.” The Literature Network. Jalic Inc., 2000-2016. Web. 30 March 2016.
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