Social Phobia

       The short narrative, Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, talks about Orwell's incident while he was working as a British Imperial. His job often made him act violently to show authority to the villagers that he was on patrol for.  His narrative starts out when an elephant went lose and starts making a mayhem in his village.
      After reading I Thought to myself two questions: Why did he shoot the elephant?, and what would I have done if that was me in that situation. Orwell shoots the elephant because of social phobia. Social phobia is a fear of being judged, laughed at, or left out, so he/she acts in a certain way to satisfy the social crowd, even though it was not their intention. Orwell feared being laughed at. He knew if he hadn't shot the elephant he would have become a laughing stock in his village. He knew his morals told him not to shoot the elephant. He knew at the moment the elephant was peaceful and the situation could have been taken care of easily. However his fear has taken over him, causing to shoot the elephant.
     After reading Orwell's narrative, it made me think about myself as a reader: What would I have done if that was me? I think people in general, in our society nowadays, all have a bit of social phobia or the feeling of wanting to "fit it". If I was in Orwell's shoes I would have shot the elephant. We can see in people nowadays that they would dress differently, talk differently, and even act differently just to fit in to a social group. Whether you like to believe it or not, we all do. I know that if I was in Orwell's shoes I would have shot the elephant to make the crowd happy.
     Orwell uses many descriptive language to portray images inside the readers head. He also tells the readers how he felt during that situation. He gave the readers a picture of what he had saw. Comparing himself to a toad under a steam roller, or the stomped Indian man to a skinned rabbit shows the readers how dangerous the elephant was. Later on Orwell describes the elephant as being grandmotherly. This give the readers a picture of a harmless elephant that can't even hurt a fly.  He describes his feeling of shooting the elephant to Imperialism. Orwell expressed his hatred towards Imperialism in the beginning of the narrative. The thought of extending a country's power by using military force bothered him. Readers now can tell how Orwell felt about the shooting. Him comparing the shooting to his thought on Imperialism tells us that he was really bothered by shooting the elephant, and even hate it himself for doing it.