College Life

The Education supplement of the New York Times features the college life. You'd beentering your Freshman year if you were in the States. Maybe you find something of interste to you, all the articles and pictures are by college students!
Enjoy your holidays!

Doris Lessing on YouTube.com & Extra Links

This video shows a section of an interview with Doris Lessing in 2007 on the occassion of the Nobel Prize she won:



I always find it interesting to get to know more about the authors of the stories I read, so I searched for some information about the writers of the short stories in order to share it with you. I found some websites which I put into the pictures on the right hand side. So you just have to click on it to get to the belonging website.
There is also a website where you can read thousands of short stories online, including the ones in "One Language Many Voices". You can search the author by name and get a listing of all his/her writings.

Online Literature Network

Feel free to comment or post other links that might be interesting! ;-)

A Hungry Crowd

I must say that I have never before experienced perfectly respectable and peacful neighbours become wild and aggressive.

Yesterday I witnessed a large crowd pressing a police officer, who seemed completely overstrained by the situation, to shoot an Elephant.

The Elephant had been rioting about in the village and had even killed a man because it had gone "must". Elephants sometimes do that but they actually are peaceful animals and really I think most of the people in the crowd new this but they probably didn't listen to their concience, which would have surely forbidden to kill a peaceful animal.

I pitied the creature, but what could I have done against a rioting mass of hungry people? Nothing. Yes, I suppose this was the main reason for all the trouble: people, living under these conditions we have to endure because of those British agents, are hungry! They just could not hold it any longer and there was a good reason for shooting the Elephant , too because it had gone "must".

The funny thing, in my opinion, about all this is, that the crowd was a lot wilder in chasing that poor police officer than the Elephant had ever been.

I am also disappointed in the officer. He should have resisted, but, of course one must say, he didn't have the courage. The crowd would have probably taken thet rifle away from him by force and done the job itself any way but not being able to fight for justice, even for animals, is, in my opinion, gutless.

The cruel shooting of an elephant

Yesterday, I was shocked because of an abandoned elephant who was killed by Eric Blair, a British officer. He shots more than one time out of the elephant who died, after this attack, a very long cruel death.

We were very helpless, so Eric Blair must do our work for us. So he killed the elephant with his old rifle.


In this moment, he didn't know, that he will kill an innocent elephant. He didn't feel very confident in the crowd of natives because he hate his work out of pety for the natives. He feels guilty to be a part of the British imperialism and he see the burmese people as a further threat against him becouse for him they are untruthful and cowardly.


But i can't understand why he had killed the elephant? He didn't think about what he had done. He was also very helpless like the natives. He is not qualified for this job here, because he made the thinks worser than before.
We don't need the british in our country.

British official killed innocent animal

It was a shocking scene yesterday, Eric Blair, a british official, killed an elephant with many shoots out of a german rifle. The elephant died a long painfully death, because the britain did not shoot really precisly. His shoots were scattered in the body of the elephant.
The british official was called to kill the elephant by rumors, apparently the elephant had gone on a rampage in the town and had destructed some buildings. But after nobody could find these destructions of the buildings. It was only a build of lies.
In an interview Eric Blair said that he was shocked as he heard he killed an innocent elephant. When he was called for help, he took his rifle and ran to the location of the elephant. He explained that he received wrong information and is awfully sorry about this incedent. The owner of the elephant guessed that somebody gave Eric Blair the wrong information with purpose. The British administration is not favoured in this country. This incedent depictes the goverment of the Britain worse organized and critizised it.
The action of Eric Blair is also very dubious, why he killed the elephant so cruel and fast?
He did not answere on this question. My opinion is that the british were on the wrong place. They destructed our country and exploit our important trades of our agriculture.
The British Empire has to dissappear. It is the only solution to escape of our poverty.

The elephant was killed by a British sub-divisional officer

The elephant which made a lot of trouble in our town was killed yesterday. Killed by the British sub-divisional officer Eric Blair. Our people were really helpless against the big male elephant which destroyed bamboos huts, killed a cow, raided some fruit-stalls an killed an Indian man.
Eric Blair was called to solve the issue. He came with his rifle, an old 44. Winchester and searched for the animal. The white man with his rifle who came to do something against the ''beast'' was the spectacle of the year for the Burmese population. Soon a big crowd was formed which followed Eric Blair and grew continously. It was clear that Eric Blair didn't feel very confident in his position with all the Natives in the back who would never leave him. The sub-divisional officer often turned around and looked really desperate to the crowd. Undoubtedly he tried to look not frightened and overstrained in front of the Natives. It seemed that he didn't want to kill the elephant but in the end he shot again and again at the big animal which finally died after half an hour of agony. Interestingly Eric Blair was not man enough to stay during the elephant died. This underlines again the poor personality of him and the European people generally.

It's a question of being superior or not

"As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters."

To begin with, Burma, the country where our story “shooting an elephant” by George Orwell takes place, was British territory.
The young police officer, the narrator, is positioned in Burma where he has to watch over the population.
Furthermore he is feeling two different types of hatred. That is, the dislike towards the citizens of Burma for being rude and impolite and their disrespectful attitude towards the foreigner white men in their country "...and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans"(p.70 l.6f). Especially the young Buddhist priests, who are waiting for an opportunity to humiliate them. The other hatred is for the British Empire, which he sharply criticizes. He notices the suffering and pain the citizens carry the whole time with them. As representative of the Empire and the white colonizers, he feels guilty for the bad treatment with whom they oppress their “ slaves”. Because of that he already considers to quit his job. But on the other hand the Empire brings progress to the country. In fact he does not really know anything as a result of his ill-educated life “I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that is a great deal better than the younger empire …”(p.70 l.22f).
Besides the challenge for an Empire like the British was, is to order and calm people after riots.
Additionally it has to guarantee safety for its people, like the administration which has to deal with a huge amount of people. The young officer was also alone with the yellow- faced crowed.
The pressure to kill the elephant let the crowd push him forward. He has to make a decision whether he kills the animal or he gains a loss of authority
In conclusion you can tell that both officers and colonized are superior and inferior in a certain way.
The British Empire has such a power over the involved parties, that any freedom in general and freedom of opinion isn’t possible.

The tragic death of an elephant

"Yesterday was one of these days I never thougt it would exist. It was an exiting day, a shocking day but also very enlighting. While I write these lines my things are already packed and I just wait for dawn to arrive to leave this godforsaken place to go back to England, my home country. Why do I leave? This is a good question... Maybe because I don't belong to this strange country, but I think this is only an excuse to escape from what happened yesterday and which still shakes my bones. I never was so afraid in my whole life.
Yesterday an elephant was shot. This sounds very pale but it isn't. The day before yesterday I had a little chat with Eric Blair. He is the sub-divisional police officer but most of the time I think he is a very strange person. He detests the British Empire but he works for it. He feels a great sympathy for the natives although they really hate him. Sometimes he is so frustrated of their behaviour, he looks close to tears when you talk with him about these subjects. But sometimes, when I look at this forelorn man I get the feeling that he is not only lonely and frustrated but also very brave. Since yesterday I know it is true.
Yesterday an elephant raved town. He had already destroyed a bamboo hut and killed a native when I arrived nearly at the same time as Blair. When he saw the corpse his face became white and ashy but I'm not sure if it was because of the smashed body or because of the burden, which laid on his shoulders. Maybe it was both of it. He sent me away to get a bigger riffle to kill the wild beast. His own was to small, maybe because he hadn't realised until then how dangerous the situation really was. I hurried to get the riffle and when I was back a crowd followed us to find the animal. Blair didn't look very well, you could see that the situation made him feel uncomfortable. We both knew that the crowd only wanted to see something exiting happen and of course they wanted to get some meat but what can we do? We are only strangers in this odd country and we cannot change the people, anyway how hard we try. When we finally found the elephant he was already calm again. It didn't look dangerous in any way and I still have doubts if it was really necessary to kill it. It didn't look wild nor angry but peaceful. I leered at Blair and I think he had the same doubts as me but there still was the crowd. And then, after he came up to the elephant, he aimed and shot. He missed the elephant's brain so it didn't die at the spot. First it only altered, then it collapsed but so slow that you could see the agony of his death. It was horrible to watch but it was even more horrible when I realised that the elephant understood that it was dying. My body still shakes when I think of it. Blair shot several times but it didn't want to die. And the crowd was waiting to get their meat. I couldn't watch it anymore, it was to cruel and after Blair left there was nothing more to see. He looked so desperate. Was it because he didn't want to do it? I'm not sure but I'm sure he felt the way I did.
Yesterday I realised there is nothing we can do in this country. Who are we to rule this country, these strange people? They don't want us, we are only puppets; the Empire uses us and the natives use us and I don't want to bear this anymore. So I decided to leave and never come back. This is the best thing you can do. After all, I never want to get in such a situation as Blair was yesterday. I think I wouldn't have stand it if it was me. Blair really is a breave man and he gave me the reality check I needed."

Imperialism, an evil thing

The present quote is an extract of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell (Eric Blair), who tells us of his own feelings and experiences as a British official in Burma, that was part of the British Empire in these times.

The occurrence in the story is a problem with an actually tamed elephant that has been out of control, but has already calmed down, when Eric Blair, the officer, arrives. That’s why he really does not want to shoot him. However, he feels forced to do it by the “two thousand wills” (p.74) of the native crowd behind him. So despite of being the superior white, he submits to those wills and shoots the elephant.

But the aim and the deeper sense of this story are to criticize colonialism and the British’s demeanor towards the natives by emphasizing the bad effect it has on the colonized people but also on the colonizers, that is to say the British, themselves.

The statement of the author: "As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters.” shows his personal deprecatory attitude towards the Empire’s actions. The “dirty work” is the suppression, exploitation and the very bad treatment of the native population. As a police officer he can see the bad living conditions of the natives and especially the fear and misery of the prisoners (“the wretched prisoners”, “cowed faces” (p.70)). And because of being a representative of this system, the British Raj, he really feels guilty and even commiserates with the native people, on the one hand.
But on the other hand, these people are just one more reason for hating his job. In their eyes he is the enemy, viz. the British intruder and superior oppressor. That’s why they don’t miss any opportunity to ridicule and humiliate him: “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (p. 69).
Undoubtedly, imperialism is an “evil thing” (p.70) for Blair, but of course he cannot express his criticism publically.

In conclusion I would like to say, that it must have been very hard for people, who felt the way, Eric Blair did, since they must have had the feeling of being all alone. Being not proud of the Empire, they could neither identify themselves with it, nor were they allowed to cooperate with the natives. And finally, they still had to preserve the mask of the superior white oppressors, even if in reality they felt, as if they were ruled by the natives.

Puppeteer or puppet?

"As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters." (p. 70, l. 13-15)
This quote is one of the key lines of the short story `Shooting an Elephant `from Georg Orwell, as it shows the feeling of the narrator and main character towards his job and The British Empire, for which he is working.
This main character is Eric Blair, a sub- divisional police officer in Moulmein Lower Burma in the times of the Raj. He suffers from the `anti-European feeling` (p. 69 l. 4) which was very present at those times in Lower Burma and is, as a representative of the British Empire, the target of hate and rejection of the Burmese population (As a police officer I was an obvious target and was bailed whenever it seemed save to do so` p. 69 l, 7-8).
In addition of being rejected and teased by the native population Eric has another reason to hate his job: he questions the ideology of the British Empire and does not believe in imperialism (´For that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out the better´ p. 70 l. 9-10 ).
In his heart he secretly wants the Burmese to be free from their British oppressors and is now stuck between his `hatred of the empire and `his ´rage against the evil spirited beasts who tried to make ` his ´job impossible` ( p.70 l. 24-26).
The young Buddhist priests for example seem, to exist only to jeer at Europeans (´The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all` p. 70, l.5 ).

But as the main character is `young and ill-educated`( p 70, l.19) and it is his job to represent the British he does his job as `the people expected it `of him.
Still in his heart he has a “sense of guilt” (p.70, l. 19) concerning the “dirty work of the Empire”. He sees the “wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages “and after a while has to admit that his work in Moulmein is to do what the natives want an expect him to.
“My whole life, every white man’s life in the east, was a struggle not to be laughed at” (p. 75,l. 42-43). This quote shows the hardships of his job.
No one can blame Eric Blair for hating his Job in which he sees himself being an „absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces”( p. 74, l. 30).

Blair shot an elephant

Today something unbelievable happened: The young British official Eric Blair shot an elephant! The people are still in uproar. When the elephant went must and escaped from its owner it caused a huge chaos: It devastated the bazaar, killed a cow, damaged almost everything that got into its way and even killed a man! The elephant’s mahout left in order to run after it but he took the wrong direction and was too far away to restrain the elephant when it was found again.
So Eric Blair had to attend to the elephant before it could go on causeing devastation. He found the elephant standing calmly in a paddy field and peacefully eating. There was a huge crowed of people standing behind the British police man, they knew that he had to shoot the elephant and the wanted some excitement.
But Blair didn’t shoot immediately - he hesitated. Why didn’t he just shoot? The elephant wasn’t out of reach, he couldn’t have missed it even if he was a very bad shooter. Didn’t he want to shoot? Did he felt sorry for an animal? Well, an elephant really is an majestic and pretty valuable animal, but it killed a human! It had to be killed and Blair had to do it! He just like the other British came to Burma to oppress us and make profit! He calls himself a police man, he was the only man with a weapon, he was the only one who could protect the people. At least, that’s what he owes us!
Finally he load his gun and shot at the elephant. He had to shoot three times to make the elephant fall. But the elephant didn’t die, yet Blair fired his remaining shots. He wasn’t dead when Blair went away, I don’t know if he just got tiered or if he didn’t want to see the elephant dying.
How could people like him conquer Burma?

Journal entry

Imagine you are a Burmese official who is opposed to the British occupation of your country. You watch Eric Blair kill the elephant. Write down a journal entry in which you describe his actions, his behavior and his role as British official.

July 22^nd, 1920

Dear diary,

Today I watched a British official shooting an elephant which had killed a man, devoured a stack of fruit and demolished a rubbish van. You can’t imagine how glad I am that this beast is finally dead!

But the behaviour of the British official was very strange: As I called him, whose name is Eric Blair, he went out with his pony to see what had happened. A huge crowd, nearly two thousand people, growing every minute, followed him to see the killing of the elephant. Besides, we wanted the meat. We all thought that it was an easy job for Blair to do, but as he looked at the elephant standing a few yards from the road, he hesitated a long time and seemed to think over his task again and again. We all were excited and impatient and had no desire than watching the beast falling down to the ground, beaten. We couldn’t understand why it took the official so long to shoot the elephant. With the rifle in his hand, he was the most powerful man in this situation, but he definitly didn’t look like that. His face was pale and his hands trembled. In his role as a British official it was his duty to do this job and free us, the natives, from the danger. We live our lives as the underdogs of the Britons and so they have to protect us, their people. But apparently they feel as if they are too good to do the dirty work, like supporting the people they are responsible for.

Finally Blair shot, but it took three shots to let the beast fall down on its knees. We raced past him and then we saw that the elephant wasn’t dead. Blair poured shot after shot in the elephant’s heart, but the elephant still breathed. It took half an hour until it finally died. It seemed to us as if Blair can’t bear the scene. He walked away. What a strange man! It seems to be impossible that Eric Blair belongs to the British officials who always think that they are something better. But this happening showed us that they are not even a little bit more brave than us. But at the moment I don’t care about this, because I got my meat and will now cook for my family.

Yours, Abaloni

Colonialism and how its criticized in "Shooting an Elephant"

Many british people are still filled with pride thinking about the English Empire. But would they still think this way when they experienced a situation like the narrator in our book?
The narrator himself describes his job down in Lower Burma as follows:
"As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarter."

The narrator seems to be quiet helpless, not able to find the right words for his feelings. Daily he is exposed to poverty and harm of thousands of people. And, even more devastating, he is the reason of the situation.
Although he is only one small stature on the chessboard, he is the symbol of the english Rule and authority.
Regarding to our quote, he does not want to be seen as a substitute of the crown. Even in his eyes the english rule is a danger for the country and its people.
"Theoratically, I was all for the Burmese and all against their opressors, the british." (p.70 l.12-13)
Firstly, the quote supports my these about his view of himself
But his quote is also somehow interesting. Only the general british opressors are mentioned, he keeps quiet about his part in the oppression.
That leads me to another point, n my opinion he is stucked between two parties. The first is his morality, the second one is his loyality.
His morality gives him the proposal to leave the country and go back to England. In contrast to this, his loyality does not allow him to do so.

British official shoots a must elephant

Today I saw Eric Blair killing an elephant and even though I know the elephant had to be shot, because he had killed a man, I feel that there was something wrong about that.

Before Eric shot the elephant I could read in his face that for him, too it felt wrongly. But we both know and knew that it was his task as a representative of the British government to shoot the elephant and therefore proof our superiority.

As Eric finally shot the elephant it was a cruel act. It appeared that the elephant was much stronger than we suspected. When the first shot hit him he became immediately immensely old, you could see with your own eyes that the elephant suffered a very painful death. His breath became weaker and weaker every minute and he tried to stand with all the power left to him.

But the thing that frightened me more is how the natives, who had formed an immense crowd behind Eric, behaved before the he shot him. They just stood there and even pushed Eric to shoot the elephant. So I can just hope that Eric did not act on there behalf but on the behalf of the Empire.

God safe the queen.

Hatred of imperialism

On the surface the short story “Shooting an Elephant” describes an incident in which the narrator, a British police officer in Burma, is asked to investigate reports of a dangerous elephant. Under pressure from the local crowd he feels forced to shoot it although he doesn’t want to. At a deeper level the story is a criticism of European colonialism.

The policeman, who has the leading part in this story, gives voices to his feelings: “As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters." (p. 70, l. 13-15). This quote emphasizes the fact that imperialism was harmful not only to the colonized people, but also to the colonizers themselves.

The young narrator who is the target of the mockery (“There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.” p.70 ll. 5-7) is confused:”I could get nothing into perspective” (p.70 l.19). But he cannot discuss his problems with anyone because the colonial officials were discouraged from questioning imperial ideology: “I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishmen in the East” (p. 70 ll. 20-21). Also, since he feels that his colleagues all support the empire he cannot share his doubts with them “secretly, of course- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (p.70 ll. 12-13).

Furthermore the narrator is a sensitive person who feels pity for those who suffer (the native Burmese and the elephant). In comparison with the crowd he seems far more affected by the death of the coolie and the elephant. As regard the killing of the animal, his conscience is not soothed by the knowledge that there was a legal justification for his action. And regarding the general colonial situation, he suffers greatly from being forced to defend a regime which he detests and which makes him act against his own conscience. To sum up, the narrator is a prisoner of imperialist ideology in that he does not seem to basically question the idea of building empires, but limits his criticism to certain aspects of it.

British official murdered elephant

Yesterday, Moulmein was shocked by the murder of an elephant. The British policeman Eric Blair shot it, while about 2000 people observed the situation: Obviously, the elephant stood calm and peaceful in a paddy field, when Blair decided to kill it.

It was suspected to have had 'must' some time before, wherefore it killed a man. But Blair was a lot to slow and unable to save this man's life. Instead he hesitated long time, probably in order to raise more interest and publicity. He mad up a big show out of killing this innocent, poor elephant by shooting three bullets into its head without hitting the brain. Of course, the elephant didn't die at once, for what Blair fired several times into its heart. It died really dreadfully. To top it all, the elephant belonged to a Burmese man. So Blair will never be punished for the crime he committed.

My personal conclusion out of this incident is, that we don't need the British in our country. They are unable to lead our administration as they cannot deal with everyday situations, like the one Eric Blair had to manage. I am convinced that we have to clamp down on British arbitrariness in order to create our own state. Our people live in poverty, under the British rule. We have nothing to loose!

Essay: British Official

Finally we got to know his true face. Everyone in this forlorn place knew him as the British police officer, the man without courage, with see-through eyes and no respect for the Burmese people. He was the target of wrongs and no one liked him, but as his Burmese opponent I had to stay official.
Untill yesterday, nobody would have suggested him to be a murderer. But he killed the elephant. He had the guts to fight against the wild animal, incited to do it by the crowd. I am so shocked, I can't reflect the aftermath but I can say that it seemed to be a huge event.
After the elephant had gone mad, he killed a man and rioted in town, so someone had to do something. Of course no one would have been better to do that than the British officer, let him do the dirty work. And surprisingly he was dominated by the crowd, the Burmese crowd. How strong can the Empire be, if their people don't think for themselves and can't stand some revolting natives?

Anyway, it was a interminable excruciating struggle to death and neither can I belive he had the guts to do it, nor can I imagine how cruel it must have been for the elephant and please don't ask me how to estimate this incident. He needed many shots to finally kill the elephant. The poor animal had to bear his inner ferocity, the screaming crowd and bullets rushing through his body.

So rarely does anything happen here, so exciting is everything that breaks through daily routine. Shooting an elephant - a big party and a chance for the Burmese to feel superior to the British? I think I have to have a time out to handle this.