The amusing and tragic nature of George Orwell's essay, "Shooting an Elephant," is evident in the title of the essay: the word “shooting” involves killing, while “elephant” connotes a certain absurdity. Throughout the story, Orwell pairs tragedy with humor. Using colorful language, the symbol of laughter and humorous contrasts—Orwell plays upon the violence of mirth and the hilarity of death.
A Humorous Beginning
Orwell opens the story with ironic flecks of humor. It begins: “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.” Immediately, we see a contrast: he is “hated” and yet this establishes a feeling of “importance.” Orwell goes on to describe how the Buddhist priests jeer at him and everyone mocks him with “hideous laughter.” Laughter, a cheerful act, is given the adjective “hideous.”
A Sad Truth
In the next paragraph, after explaining the resentment the Burmese have towards him, he admits that he is actually secretly rooting for the Burmese, not the British. He writes: “I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better” (148). Orwell throws us off by opening with the hostility he feels towards them, and then coming back around to let us know he actually identifies with his persecutors. He wants to “chuck up” his job—a rather funny use of language. Suddenly, we think he empathizes with the Burmese, after all, only to hear him declare a moment later that they’re “evil little beasts” and he’d like to drive a bayonet into the “Buddhist priest’s guts” (149). His language is vulgar and colloquial, with an edge of humor. Further, the ironic dancing between his hatred of imperialism and his resentment of the Burmese is, frankly, kind of funny.
Elephant on the Loose
The situation itself, an escaped elephant, also has a slightly comical edge. The elephant has gone “must”—that is to say, he’s on a horny rampage storming the village. The descriptions of the scene have satirical darkness. The corpse of the dead man is “grinning with an expression of unendurable agony.” For the “yellow faces” the shooting “was a bit of fun” (151). Orwell mocks himself in the scene, claiming his role as an “absurd puppet,” which has a jovial yet terrifying connotation for a man in his position of power. He returns to the cohesive thread of laughter, stating his life as “one long struggle not to be laughed at” (153). This line is ridiculous—his concerns seem so silly and trivial—yet his sentiment is undeniably tragic. Laughter kills.
Toxic Laughter
The theme of toxic laughter carries through the entire story, from the beginning, when he generalizes about the Burmese laughing at him, through the end, when he discusses his motivations for killing the elephant:
"The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill. And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do."
His concern about being laughed at extends to after his death. The laughter, it seems, is the most serious sin committed against him. He will kill to avoid humiliation—again, the laughter is fatal and ironic.
Tragic Comedy
In spite of all this humorous contrast, “Shooting an Elephant” is not a comic essay, by any means. Rather, Orwell writes with a satiric frustration, and he uses humor to clarify his disgust and anger. Humor actually serves the tragic underpinning of the essay, adding bite to the seriousness of the trouble. It’s a sharp knife that drives the point home—laughter loosening the reader ever so slightly, only to make her cringe at the ugliness of imperialism.
Clarissa Caldwell - Clarissa Caldwell lives, reads and writes in Walla Walla, Washington. She has a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of ...
