Identify instances of descriptive language used to evoke emotion and create atmosphere in the text. Provide examples and explain their effectiveness.

Examine the symbolism of the elephant in the excerpt. What does the elephant represent, and how does its fate reflect broader themes in the narrative?

Reflect on the narrator's sense of empathy towards the elephant. How does his perception of the elephant change throughout the excerpt, and what does this reveal about his character?

The author's choice of words, such as “stricken, shrunken, immensely old”, creates a sense of vulnerability and disability towards the rifle.

Descriptive phrases like “legs sagging” and “head drooping”, paint a vivid picture of the wounded elephant.

The author utilizes similes, such as “he seemed to tower upward like a huge rock toppling, his trunk reaching skyward like a tree”, to evoke a feeling of helpless and regret in the reader.

2 From the passage, when can find out that the writer is supposed to test the elephant’s behaviour, but he directly shot it because of the fear of being trampled. The elephant’s fate of dying painfully and hopelessly represents the painful deaths of animals that are vulnerable when faced to the weapons of humans and may also represent the unreasonable killings of the animals that are often considered as dangers. The elephant's role in the story reflects deeper societal issues, such as the relationship between humans and animals nowadays and the mercy killings of animals to let them die without so much pain.

3 Initially, the narrator's attitude towards the elephant is being afraid of being trampled by it in front of the Burmans, so he almost showed no mercy to shoot it. As the narrator witnesses the elephant’s slow and painful death, his empathy towards the elephant intensifies, leading to distress (and regret). The narrator's response to the elephant's suffering suggests that he is someone who is kind and taking pity on suffering animals.

3. First the fear of it, then the shock of it, and the pity of it, finally the grief of it. We can sense that he is a compassionate , justicial and responsible person.

2. The elephant might represent all the vulnerable animals in front of people’s guns. People kill them for food, for fun, and even just for useless vanity, like the man in the paragraph. He does  struggles for his conscience, but finally he shoots the elephant, for he does not want to be laughed at. The elephant’s fate reflects the misery of animals.

3. He wants to get close to a elephant. He is not a very good shooter and he describe the chances he can miss the elephant are just as much as “a toad under a steam-roller.”However, when he is in front of a group of people with yellow skin, the “natives”, he is not frightened anymore, for “A white man mustn't be frightened in front of ‘natives’.” He does not want to miss, because if he misses he will be killed by the elephant, and what’s worse is that he is going to become “a grinning corpse like that Indian up the hill” and be laugh by these two thousand Burmans. We can see a proud white man thinking that he is superior to the native people, though he has bad shooting skill. He have sympathy, but it is overwhelmed. After he shoot it, he feels pain and struggle of the elephant, so he feels sorry for it. We can see that the man in the paragraph has an internal turmoil, and he still has pity.

The writer might want us to be aware of the bad situation of animals and ask people to protect them.