Structure

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Beginning

The short story begins by directly introducing readers to the setting and main character: “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people--the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me. I was sub-divisional police officer of the town…” (p. 1, ll. 1-3). The opening lines also set the conflict in the story, as we find out the police officer d…

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Middle

The middle of the story develops the rising action, which presents all the events leading to the shooting of the elephant.

Tension increases as the narrator becomes frustrated with the locals’ accounts of seeing or not seeing the elephant:

Some of the people said that the elephant had gone in one direction, some said that he had gone in another, some professed not even to have heard of any elephant. I had almost made up my mind that the whole story was a pack of lies… (p. 2, ll. 7-9)

A turning point in the story is represented by the narrator finding a man who has been killed by the elephant: “Some more women followed, clicking their tongues and exclaiming; evidently there was something that the children ought not to have seen. I rounded the hut and saw a man's …

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Ending

The falling action show the narrator leaving the site of the shooting, unable to wait for the elephant to die: “In the end I could not stand it any longer and went away. I heard later that it took him half an hour to die.” (p. 4, ll. 34-35)

The resolution is closed, being set after the shooting.  The narrator presents what happened after the death of the animal: the divided opinions of his colleagues and the anger of the elephant’s owner…

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