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Shooting an Elephant - TDC 1st Semester English Model Questions & Answers (Gen)

 Shooting an Elephant Questions and Answers


B.A First Sem english Q/A


BA 1st Sem English Model Question papers Gauhati University


TEXTUAL QUESTIONS


Q.1: "And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all."

What made the author suddently realize that he would have to shoot the elephant?

Why does he use the expression "after all"?

Explain how Orwell came to realize what course of action he should take?

Ans : 1st part : The author had no intention to shoot the elephant.He had ordered an elephant rifle from his friend for his safety as a precaution in case he was attacked. But when he got the rifle, as he glanced around at the crowd that had followed him to where the.elephant was, he was startled. It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and was growing every minute. And as he looked over,he saw a sea of yellow faces above the garish clothes. They were all happy and excited over that bit of fun and were all certain that the elephant was going to be shot. Even though they did not like him,they were watching him as a conjurer who was about to perform a trick. It was at that sudden moment that he realized he had to shoot the elephant.

2nd part : The author expresses that he had to shoot the elephant after all. He said so because the people expected it of him and thus he had to do it. He felt the two thousand peoples' will pressing him forward, irresistably. He felt himselt as a Sahib. And according to him, a Sahib should act like a Sahib and has got to appear resolute,to know his mind and do definite things. To have gone all the way with a rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at his heels,and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing was not possible.The crowd would laugh at him, and thus he had to kill the elephant after all.

3rd part : It was perfectuly clear to him what course of action he had to take. He planned to walk up-to within about twenty-five yeards of elephant and test his behaviour. If the elephant would charge,he could shoot, and if he took no notice of him, it would be safe to leave the elephant till the mahout arrived. He was scared as he was a poor shot and might get trapped in the soft mud if he somehow missed the target and the elephant happened to charge and so he dropped the plan. He then thought he would aim straight at the elephant's ear-hole and actually he aimed several inches front of it thinking the brain would be further forward.


Q.2 : How did Orwell shoot the elephant to death? What trouble did he face in shooting the animal?

Ans : Orwell ought to have shot straight at the elephant's earhole.but he actully aimed everal inches in front of it, thinking that the brain would be further forward. But when he pulled the trigger, he did not hear the bang or felt the kick. He only heard a devilish roar of glee from the crowd. The elephant neither stirred nor fell, but every line of his body had altered. It seemed as if the bullet had paralysed him without knocking him down. After about five seconds, it sagged flabbily to his knees. Its mouth slobbered. Orwell then again fired at the same spot, but is did not collapse. It climbed to its feet with desperate slowness and stood weakly upright, with legs sagging and head drooping. And then Orwell made a third shot which did for the elephant. The elephant turmpeted for the first and only time after collapsing to his feet, and came down, its belly towards Orwell, with a crash that seemed to shake the ground.Orwell faced much trouble in shooting the elephant because it was dying slowly and in much pain and it was difficult for him to stand that painful sight for long. He waited a long time for the elephant to die and finally he shot the remaining two bullets and then thick blood welled out of it like red velvet, but still-not dying. Orwell felt that he had got to put on end to that dreadful pain. It seemed quite dreadful to see that great beast lying, powerless to move and yet powerless to die, he himself not being able to finish him.Orwell then sent for his small rifle and poured shot after shot into the elephant's heart and down its heart, but they seemed to make no impression.The tortured gasps continued as steadily as the ticking of a clock and at last not being able to stand the sight, the author went away. Orwell later heard that the great beast died after an agonising half an hout.Orwell actually did not want to shoot the elephant, but he was forced through the wills of thousands of natives to kill it for their merriment.Thus, when Orwell, after shooting the elephant, saw the agony of the half dead great beast, he could not stand the sight and thus wanted to kill it at one go to relieve it from the slow pain.


EXTRA QUESTIONS


Q1: What does the writer say about his days in Moulmein.

Ans : Moulnuin was in Lower Burma. Orwell was Posted there.He was hated there by a large number of people. And it was the only time in his life that he had been important enough for it to happen to him. Orwell was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way, he felt that the arti-European feeling was bitter. No one ever had the guts or courage to raise a riot or show any sign of bravery. But if any European woman were to go through the market all alone, somebody from the coward lot of anti-Europe- ans would probably spit betel nut juice over her dress. As a police officer, Orwell was an obvious and common target for the natives and was baited whenever it seemed safe for them to do so. Once, Orwell was tripped by a nimble Burman on the football field, but the Burman referee looked the other way to show that the trip was unnoticed. And at this, the crowd yelled with hideous laughter. This happened for many times.At last, the sneering yellow faces of young men that met Orwell everywhere, the insults hooted after him when he was at a safe distance, got badly on Orwell's nerves. In addition to all these evils and unruly situations, the young Buddhist priests were also into relable. They were the worst of all. There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything else to do, except stand on street corners and jeer at the Europeans. Orwell's days in Moulmein were very perplexing and upsetting. Orwell was very unhappy working in such a situation and in such a place where only the natives were given importance, whereas, the Europeans, even though in authority were jeered at and mocked by the Burmese, It was a very uncomfortable job for Orwell and his days in Lower Burma were displeasing.

Q2 : What are Orwell's views on imperialism and his job?

Ans : The days in Moulmein, where Orwell was all through mocked and jeered at for being a European, were .very perplexing and upsetting. It was at that time that he had fully understood the meaning of imperalism. He considered imperialism as an evil thing and the sooner he could get done with the job, the better he thought it would be. He hated his job more bitterly than he could explain. His job showed him the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners were seen huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups. The grey, cowed faces of the long term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos were ter-rible sights. He was young and illeducated and thus had to think out his problems in the utter silence that was imposed on every English-man in the East. He did not even know that the English empire was dying. He was stuck in between the his hatred of the empire he served and his rage against the evilspirited little beasts who tried to make his job all the more impossible, On the one hand he felt that the British rule was an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum (for ever and ever), upon the will of prostrate peoples; and on the other hand he thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist, priest's guts. These feelings, all mixed, are the normal by-products of imperialism.Orwell, was quite dissatisfied with his job and the evil spirited.imperalism He expresses his bitterness against both in unequirvocal terms.

Q.3 : Why did Orwell not want to shoot the elephant?

Ans : Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant for quite good reasons. When he first saw the elephant beating the bunch of grass

against its knees, he felt that it was preoccupied with the grand motherly air which elephants usually have. It seemed to Orwell that it would rather be a murder to shoot the elephant dead. At that age,Orwell was not squeamished about killing animals, but he had never ever shot an elephant before and never wanted to. It somehow always seemed worse to him to kill a large animal, and that too the largest of all. Moreover, there was the elephant's owner who was also to be

considered. With life in it, the elephant was worth not less than a hundred pounds. But, once dead, the elephant would only be worth

the value of its tusks, not more than five pounds, only. Orwell wanted to give the elephant a chance, and therefore he thought of going close to it to see how it behaved. According to Orwell, it was a serious

matter to shoot an elephant and that too a working elephant. Killing the elephant was comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery. Moreover, at the distance from where Orwell saw the elephant, it was peacefully,eating and looked no more dangerous than a cow. Orwell had merey sent for the rifle in case he needed to defend himself. Orwell was at last, in a sense, forced by the Will ot more than two thousand natives who were expecting him to kill the elephant. And thus, at last Orwell killed the elephant. He poured in shot after shot and this entertained the natives. Hence, even thougn Orwell was unwilling to kill the elephant it died in agony Witn Orwell's shots.


Q.4 On what ground is the shooting of a working elephant a serious matter? Why did the speaker kill it then? 

Ans: A working elephant is very much different from a wild elephant as the farmer is like a huge and costly piece of machinery. Like the machinery it has the capacity to do much work in the form of carrying big and heavy loads from one place to another. Thus, one should give serious thinkings to the matter of killing or shooting a working elephant. Shooting a working elephant means doing great harm to society specially to its owner. Thus, he should consider wisely before shooting it whether it is absolutely necessary or not. 

The speaker had no intention to kill the elephant as he clearly understood that the elephant was not at all dangerous at that moment and hence there was no satisfactory reason to shoot it. But the very next moment he thought of the great crowd who expected only one thing that is the shooting of the elephant. Even though he was against the idea of shooting the elephant he had to submit to their will to keep the image of the white men unblemished. He therefore, shot the elephant quite against his conscience and against any practical reason. 

After the shooting of the elephant there were endless discussions about the killing of the elephant. Some people who at first consented to the idea of killing the elephant, soon showed a kind of sympathy towards the elephant after it was killed. But the shooter had legally done the right thing to kill the mad elephant which its owner could not control.


Q.5: I perceiued in this moment that when the white men turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. Which 'moment' is reffered to here? How does a white men destroy his freedomly turning tyrant.? 

Ans: The 'moment' here reffered to is a crucial moment in the author s lile, a moment of realisation of a naked truth. The author had no intention to kill the elephant. His primary decision was to watch the elephant for some time and then leave it alone till the return of its mahout. But however the author ultimately changed his decision on second consideration. He felt that the great crowd standing behind him expected only one thing from him ie shooting the elephant and felt an urge that he must do that. He realised the hollowness and futility of the English men's domination in the east. They have to abandon their individual character to submit to a code of conduct followed by each of them. They lose their natural behaviour and act just as the natives wanted them to act. The moment when he realised this helplessess is referred to in the extract. 


Tyrant means a person who makes cruel use of his power. When an Englishmen behaves in that way before the natives, they form Similar despotic image about him in their mind. He has to conform to his behaviour subsequently to keep his image unchanged. In this way his freedom to behave according to his own sweet will is de- stroyed and he becomes a puppet the conventionalised figure of a sahib.


Q.6:"It made me vaguely uneasy. Who made this remark? What made him uneasy? What did he ultimately do due to this uneasiness? 


Ans: George Orwell, the author of Shooting an Elephant' made this remark at a very revealing moment of his life. 

   As soon as the author came to knOW about the elephant creating ravages, he sent for an elephant rifle. He had no intention to kili the elephant as it was no longer dangerOus at that moment. His original intention was to go near the elephant to know about his present state and if it turned unruly, he would shoot or else leave it alone till its mahout found him. But as he proceeded towards the paddy field, where the elephant was found, the whole population of the area followed him. They expected that the elephant was going to be killed and it would he worth watching. Another reason was to share the elephant meat after it was killed. Thus the author felt uneasy owing to a conflict between his own will and the will of the crowd. The writers original intension of not killing the elephant was further intensified when he saw the elephant swalloWing bunches of grass Deacefully in the sloggy paddy field. He first thought that he would test the behaviour of the elephant by going nearer to him across the muddy field. But being a poor shot he did not dare to do that. It seemed impossible for him. To return without doing anything and leaving the elephant alone was also not possible, because that would he doing injustice to the white men who were known to the natives as men of resoluteness. Besides, the will of the great crowd forced him to kill the elephant against the call of his coneciense and he ultimately shot the tlephant to death.


Q.7) Describe the shooting of the elephant till it died.

Ans: The speaker had no intension to kill the elephant but the fear of his being chased by the elephant and getting kilied before the eyes of the natives, that would bring disgrace to rulling British people, made him change his decision and he loaded his rifle to kill it.

Being ignorant of the most vulnerable spot in an elephant, the author shot at a place nearest to the brain. As he hit the animal a mysterious and terrible change came over its body. He looked stricken, shrunked and immensely old as if the shock had paralysed him without knocking him down. After five seconds the elephant sank upon his knees slowly and his mouth slobbered. The author then fired another shot when the elephant rose to its feet very slowly and stood upright with his legs sagging and head dropping. Even though the author fired two bullets, the elephant still had some strength left in him but with the third bullet shot, the elephant lost all the strength and he fell with a crash that shook the ground. But before that he seemed to rise for a moment with its hind legs. collapsing and his trunk reaching towards the sky. He then trumpeted for the last time and fell with his belly towards the authobr. 

       Even then the elephant did not die instantly. It was gasping pain- fully for about half an hour. The author then fired the two remaining shots from the rifle, but they failed to make any impression on the elephant. So the author sent for his small rifle and fired several shots but with no result. Unable to hear the sight of the elephant's painful gasping any longer he left the place with'a troubled mind and later heard that it had died half an hour afterwards.


Q.8: It was perfectly clear to me what I ought to do."

 What is the occasion of the statement? What is perfectly clear to the author about his duty ?    
    
Why did he not do the right thing? 

Ans: When the author George Orwell saw the elephant eating  grass peacefully, he wanted to knoW more about it. Some experi- enced. Burmans informed him that the elephant was harmless if left alone peacefully, but might charge or even try to harm if somebody the author became clear about what he ought to do and this was the went near him. Thus from this knowledge about the elephant this Occasion of the remark.

After learning all about the elephant from some experienced Bur- mans the author made up his mind as to what should be done with the elephant. So when the author came to see the elephant he saw that it was peacefully eating grass, which made him clear that it was no longer dangerous. Thurefore in order to know about the elephant's present state of mind, he should go near it to test its behaviour. If it charged the author, then he must shoot it at once, but if it did not charge, he must leave it alone till the return of its mahout. 

The author decided to first go near the elephant to know about his present state and then to test its behaviour. But ultimately he did not do the right thing of going near the elephant. Being a poor shot he did not dare to do that. He thought that in case he missed his target, the elephant might turn furious and chase him, catch him and trample him under feet. In such a case that would he something inconcievable not for himself alone, but for the entire English community in his position. The idea of being trampled down would bring the English- men down from their glorious position and make them an object of ridicule.

Therefore, without responsing to the call of his Conscience, the author took the rifle and shot the elephan.

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