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