elephant

Why does it take the elephant so long to die? Is there a metaphor at work here? What is Orwell saying?

There are a few reasons why it takes so long for the elephant to die. One is that the elephant is huge and the bullets aren't that big. Also, it is making the narrator think about what he has done and try to make him decide if it is right or wrong.

The elephant took so long to die because the rifle he was useing was way too small to kill an elephant of that size and it made the narrator think if it was really the right thing to do; just to kill an elephant because of all the pressure he was under.

i agree with the 2 people above. the gun that the person was using wasn't meant to kill an elephant. It also took so long for the elephant to die because they were trying to make the main character think about what he has done and is about to do.

After the narrator struggles with wounding the elephant, it still takes the elephant a half hour to die. This might be so that the narrator can really reflect on what he did, and even though he left, he was still probably regretting what he did. He most likely felt terrible that he couldn't instantly kill the elephant, and that it had to be in agony for a long time.

I agree with people that wrote before me. I think It took such a long time for elephant to die, because an elephant is gigantic and the bullet he shot was not strong enough to kill an elephant right away. And during the moment when an elephant is stuggling between death and survive, It makes the guy to think rather he was right to shoot this animal or not.

Literally speaking, the elephant's drawn out death has more to do with where the narrator aims than it does with the bullets being too small or the gun being insufficient. Because in fact, the rifle that the narrator uses is specifically for killing elephants. In the first paragraph on the second page the narrator says, "I sent an orderly to a friend's house nearby to borrow an elephant rifle."
From Wikipedia:
"An elephant gun is a large caliber gun, rifled or otherwise, so named because they were originally developed for use in hunting elephants and other large dangerous game."
Therefore, it isn't very plausible that it is a flaw in the gun which causes the elephant to suffer such slow agony. On the fourth page, first paragraph, the narrator says, "I did not then know that in shooting an elephant one would shoot to cut an imaginary bar running from ear-hole to ear-hole. I ought therefore, as the elephant was sideways on, to have aimed straight at his ear-hole; actually I aimed several inches in front of this, thinking the brain would be further forward." So, in fact, it was a flaw in the narrator's thinking which was the problem, not the gun.
However, figuratively the whole scene seems to be a metaphor for the careless and pointless destruction caused by imperialism and the weakness of human nature. In the same way that the British were suppressing the Burmans, the Burmans were out to destroy the elephant. Both used the narrator as their tool, which illustrates the weakness of his nature in staying in a job which went against his principles, and in shooting the elephant when he knew that it was no longer a danger. The way that the elephant dies is incredibly significant. He first doesn't believe his fate, and then bends to his knees, but after the second shot he tries to rise again. After the third shot he falls, but the narrator notices that he seems to rise at first, before falling, and he trumpets. Then the elephant refuses to die, and the narrator describes his tortured breathing. This reminded me of the way that a foreign power would conquer a country, like the British with the Burmans. First the occupied people would be caught by surprise, and succumb to the greater power. But after realizing what had happened they would try to revolt. However, after being defeated again they would finally be suppressed, but not without one last great stand. The elephant refuses to die the same way the conquered people would refuse to give up, even though they have been defeated.

Good point Chocosho.

The elongated death of the elephant seems like it is showing how we are strugling to survive. We don't have knowledge we need (aka shooting the elephant through the wrong part of the head) to survive. By the time we realize this it is too late. As the elephant fights to survive, so do we. We refuse to give up even though we know that it is already too late. Finally, that last shot of the gun signifies our defeat. We cry out from the realization that we no longer can win and we give up hope.
This is alot like Oedipus in many senses. Oedipus is going along just fine until the prophet comes and tries to tell Oedipus that he is the real murderer. During this passage Oedipus expresses a little bit of concern because he remembers the prophecy and is starting to come to knowledge (the first shot). But, Tireseus doesn't deliver this info in the right way as Oedipus' temper gets into the way. Then, when the messanger comes and tells Oedipus that he was not the king and queens real son Oedipus starts to consider the fact that the prophecy might have been true and gets really worried (the secong shot). The final shot is when Oedipus realized that he has truely killed his father and married his mother. His final move was to gauge his eyes out (like the elephant raised his truck and trumpeted) for he had finally met his defeat. Just like the elephant, Oedipus doesn't die but stumbles around in the woods waiting for his death to come.

I think that it took the elephant so long to die because it made the narrator think about what he was doing, and it gave him time to see how painful it is to kill an "innocent" beast and it show him how he did the wrong thing and how he eventually realizes that.

Chocosho wrote:

The elephant's drawn out death has more to do with where the narrator aims than it does with the bullets being too small or the gun being insufficient.

The fact that the narrator didn't ask anyone where you were supposed to shoot showed that he seemed to be acting on an impulse, shooting the elephant because the crowd expected him to. That just made the situation worse, because now he feels guilty about the elephant taking forever to die and he has just shown a large group of people that he doesn't know how to shoot an elephant. In a way, his guilt for causing the elephant so much pain is a punishment for not taking the time to find out where to shoot, and for shooting the elephant in the first place.

I think the reason the elephant takes so long to die is because, well, its like when a new tyrant comes into power who's unknowlingly corrupt. It takes a long time for their rein to die off and it leaves the people under their rule, like the narrator, to think about how things have come to be.

I agree with most of the people here that it wasnt the size of the bullets that caused the elephant so long to die, it was the metaphor. The metaphor used was to give the narrorator time to think about his desicion. This also shows how the elephant is not willing to give up, but this is almost the same with the narrator becuase he is not giving up on trying to kill the elephant, untill he has no more bullets.

I think that the elephant took so long to die because it was fighting for its survival. I agree with some of the previous people on this most when they said that the gun was not the problem. The gun that the narrator used was perfectly capable of killing the animal as that's what is was made for. After the narrator shoots the elephant he realizes what he has done and sheds some light on what he has just done. When describing the animal after he has shot it, he says,

"He looked suddenly stricked, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralyzed him without knocking him down."

At this point, the narrator has realized what he has just done. He understands that he just attacked a helpless and innocent animal and that the only reason he had chosen to do such a thing was to please a crowd of people. The people that he was trying to please, whether he shot the elephant or not, were going to think poorly of him. He realizes that he had broken down under pressure and had only killed the innocent animal because of the pressure to do good in the eyes of the people. The time that it takes for the elephant to die forces the narrator to think upon what he has done and to realize his mistakes. The long time he has to wait until the animal dies emphasizes what he has done wrong and makes him feel pain and sorrow for the animal a lot more than if he had done it under different circumstances.

i dont remember exactly what caliber gun the narrator was using, but i do agree with sportscar_freak, in that the elephant was trying to survive

well because he is huge and maybe the bullet didn't hit the right spots to kill him instantly

I think that the only reason the elefant survived so long was to force the narorater to feel guilty and make him suffer for what he did. It was not the gun because he sends someone to get an elefant rifle after he sees the dead indian.

OK, this seems to me that people arenot digging very deep. the question askes for a metaphore. the way i see it the death of the elephant is representative of the death of the British empire. Earlier in the story the narrator of the story says that he didn't even know that the empire was dying. this quote hinted at the other death in the story aka the elephant.

The metaphor for the elephant taking so long to die is the british empire slowly withering away and degrading into nothing. The elephant taking so long to die also represents another metaphor which is the author questioning what he is doing and why he is with the british government and why he shot the elepahnt, which is just pretty much peer pressure from the followers.

It takes the elephant a really long time to die because the narrator is an extremely bad shot. Not to be brass but I really dont think that the elephant is a metaphor, I can see how some people think it might be. I personally just think that the story was about shooting an elephant, and not about Britian and all that jazz. If it was a metaphor though i would bet people would say that the elephant was England and the gun was the Burameis people.

It takes the elephant a really long time to die because the narrator is an extremely bad shot. Not to be brass but I really dont think that the elephant is a metaphor, I can see how some people think it might be. I personally just think that the story was about shooting an elephant, and not about Britian and all that jazz. If it was a metaphor though i would bet people would say that the elephant was England and the gun was the Burameis people.

I think it took the elephant a while to die for a couple reasons. First, an elephant is a very large animal so it would take a while for it to die. Looking at it metaphorically, it's death sort of represents all of the hurtful things that we do. In the narrator's case, he didn't want to shoot the elephant but did it anyway for the sake of fitting in or looking "cool". After shooting the elephant he felt guilty, especially since it didn't die right away. The elephant represents the consequence of our choices. When the choices we make hurt us, they pain/guilt/sadness doesn't go away so quickly, no matter what you do (like with the narrator trying to make the elephant die faster, it didn't really work).

I think of the elephant as a barrier between the narrator and the Bermese people and in the end the narrator has broken down that barrier. The narrator has gained respect from the people just by killing this elephant, he wants to fit in so much that he would kill an elephant just to gain trust and respect... in a way we all want to gain each others trust and respect.

I think that it takes the elephant a long time to die because it represents the burmese people, who yet opressed, refuse to give in, taunting and rebelling with every chance.