Shooting an Elephant

“Shooting an Elephant” is a tricky piece of writing to categorize. Some Orwell biographers consider it to be a non-fiction essay, while others refer to it as an autobiographical short story (since Orwell did not explicitly state that this was a true story from his life). Either way, it is clear that this story was heavily informed by Orwell’s experience as a police officer in Burma in the 1920s. The opening lines of the story establish that Orwell is pulling directly from his time in Burma:  

In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people – the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter.

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