Shooting an Elephant AREDEWThe writer George Orwell, in his narrative essay, "Shooting an Elephant", describes a policeman, in Burma, shooting an elephant and his internal struggle with the filming of it. Orwell's goal is to create duality and emphasize choices between good and evil. He uses a contradictory tone in order to create similar feelings in his readers. His use of narrative structure helps readers get inside his character's head and better see the duality of human nature when he chooses between good and evil. In the exposition, we learn about the main character's dual personality. He is a policeman for the British Empire, but he thought "imperialism was a bad thing." But, on the other hand, he says he wants to scam a Buddhist priest (a member of the Burmese people). It shows how he goes back and forth, trying to figure out what's right and what's wrong. He doesn't know if the British are better or the Burmese are mocking. And we, the readers, get a glimpse of this battle in his head. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Another great example of duality in narrative structure is rising action. It begins when he fights an internal battle to shoot the elephant. “As soon as I saw the elephant, I knew with perfect certainty that I should not shoot it...suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. .. I had to shoot the elephant... ..But I didn't want to shoot the elephant....It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot it." His internal battle to shoot the elephant adds to the duality of the play. He doesn't know what is good or bad. Is it right to shoot the elephant, or wrong? Orwell's narrative structure lets us into the character's head so we can see this battle. Finally, we see the whole European duality in the outcome. The older cops said he did the right thing, the younger cops said, "It was... a shame to shoot an elephant for killing a coolie because an elephant was worth more than it was." any...coolie Coringhee.” Readers also see the main character's internal conflict over whether or not it was right to kill the elephant. He tries to justify it by saying, “I was glad the collie was killed; this vindicated me legally and gave me sufficient pretext to shoot the elephant. But his moral conscience still thinks it's wrong because the last sentence of the essay says: "...I had done it only to avoid looking like a fool." So even at the end of the narrative piece, he is still wondering whether or not it was right to shoot the elephant. And with the narrative structure of the essay, we can see this. Orwell takes us inside the character's head with his narrative essay. If this were a normal essay, we wouldn't get the same effect of being inside the character's mind and seeing their internal struggles. Thus, through his narrative structure, Orwell clearly expressed the duality and struggle between what is right and what is wrong..