emsemsems 's review for:

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell

1.0

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'—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—As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.'

See, the thing is I am not, and can never be the 'target'/intended audience/reader for this piece of writing. I only wanted to read this because Yan Ge mentioned it in her latest book, [b:Elsewhere|62919909|Elsewhere|Yan Ge|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1686761218l/62919909._SY75_.jpg|98737271]. And I think, I know now what she was implying when she planted the reference over there. Reading this does add some form of 'understanding' to Yan Ge's story (sort of?), but is it worth it though? But it's such a tiny piece of writing anyway so I'm not mad about it.

Readers (as in those who wrote/published journals and articles on this) like to debate on whether or not this is based on a 'true story' (or if it's only fiction). It is still a 1* for me either ways.

'When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere—.'

'And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at—And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.'