The subject of George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant" is literally, him having to make the decision to either shoot a mad and out-of-control elephant, or to leave it be. It's a symbol for the British Empire dying. This is illustrated with the sentence "[the towns people] had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot." The elephant is the Empire--when it was merely declining no one seemed to care for it, but now that it's finally ending everyone suddenly had an opinion and cared very much for it.
"Shooting an Elephant" was written during 1935 when the British Empire was dying. Its time of creation is illustrated when the author comes straight out to say, in the second paragraph, that he "did not know the British Empire was dying." The place of this essay was Moulmein in Lower Burma, as indicated in the first sentence. The time and place influence this essay because it was the time of the British Empire dying.
Orwell's specific audience for "Shooting an Elephant" is those people who were not present during that time. The author's target audience is exhibited through his clear detail about the happenings of this time. This is because if he were to be writing for people who were present, he would not decide to include such depth of backstory in this essay.
His purpose is to inform those about the fiasco. His lesson is to learn from he past and to not repeat it. He is informing us because he is trying to create better conditions for us to build our governments on. Orwell states in the last few paragraphs the happenings afterward. He is teaching us to learn from the past through the sentence, "...it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant."
Orwell, also the author of Animal Farm and 1984, believes that imperialism is a horrible thing. It causes people to do what they do not want to do because of the pressure to please everyone. This is illustrated through the policeman's unwillingness to kill the elephant, but shooting it anyways, since that's what he thought was what the Burmans wanted.
The tone of "Shooting an Elephant" is unhappy and relatively hateful. It is used to explain the Burman's hate towards the British Empire. They so truly loathe its control over them and the illustration of the police officer and the Burmans story is a prime example to explain this.
Good job for the first SOAPSTone attempt. You have nice examples backing up your claims. Don't forget to explain the support to make sure your audience is on the same page as you. "Orwell, also the author of Animal Farm and 1984, believes that imperialism is a horrible thing. It causes people to do what they do not want to do because of the pressure to please everyone. This is illustrated through the policeman's unwillingness to kill the elephant, but shooting it anyways, since that's what he thought was what the Burmans wanted." This is a perfect example to back your claim, but you don't say that his caving to the Burmese people points out the fundmental flaw with Imperialism, and that is not being able to make decisions for yourself. (Now your sentence doesn't have to be exactly like that but rather just tell how/why that examples proves your claim.
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