Shooting an Elephant (Page 7)

Shooting an Elephant Analysis

The use of form, structure and language is a huge part of how this text is written and helps deliver and tell the story that the author was trying to tell. The author is trying to tell the story of shooting an elephant, however the narrator does not want to but ends up going through with it anyways. This shows a very sad and depressing mood for the narrator.

The form used in this text is that of a short story which shows various types of brief imagery in order to describe the scene to the reader without going into too much detail. An example of this is “The rifle was a beautiful German thing with cross-hair sights.” This quickly puts an image into the readers heads of what the gun looks like without overly describing it. The short story was also written informally by showing what the narrator had thought while they were questioning whether to shoot the elephant and also what they thought after they had shot it. This was seen when the narrator had said “When I pulled the trigger I did not hear the bang or feel the kick,” this shows what the reader had experienced when they had shot the gun using words like ‘bang’ and ‘kick’ to describe it. The story was also written in chronological order to possibly build suspense at the beginning if the narrator was going to go through with shooting the elephant.

The structure of the text had used very long paragraphs in order to explain each scene that had happened without breaking each scene into pieces. For example in the third paragraph the author had thoroughly described how the elephant had reacted to each time he was shot. They had done this in depth for each shot that the narrator had taken in hopes of putting the elephant out of its misery. The story is also structured as a short story to tell the story without going too in depth about the details. There is also repetition in this story because the narrator repeats ‘I fired again into the same spot.’ The author had repeatedly said each time he had fired in order to transition from what the elephant was feeling at the time to the next. The structure of this short story also builds suspense at two different times to get the reader more interested in the story. The first time the author had built suspense was before he had shot the elephant and was questioning whether to shoot it or not. The second time the structure had built suspense was when the elephant would not stop breathing and he repeatedly tried to put it out of its misery without luck.

The language used in this text is that of an informal short story that describes what was happening in the narrator's head without going too far in depth. The use of modal verbs in this text also show the tone because it makes the tone seem more sad and regretful for the narrator. For example when the narrator said “It was obvious that the elephant would never rise again,” shows that the narrator had no hope that the elephant was going to survive. This language also shows the depressing tone that is throughout the story as the narrator has no hope that the elephant would survive after the first shot and shoots it many more times to put it out of its misery. Another example of the depressing tone was when the narrator said “It seemed dreadful to see the great beast lying there, powerless to move and yet powerless to die.” This shows the depressing and hopeless tone that is spread throughout the story.