Shooting an Elephant

by George Orwell

Shooting an Elephant: Style 1 key example

Style
Explanation and Analysis:

Orwell’s writing style in “Shooting an Elephant” is both philosophical and poetic. The philosophical nature of his writing style comes across in the sections of the story in which he investigates the nature of colonialism and how it harms both oppressor and oppressed. For example, during the scene in which he is surrounded by 2,000 Burmese people expecting him to shoot and kill a rampaging elephant, he writes, “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.”