[In Person} Orwell's Shooting an Elephant (essay)

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Texts:
We will email you the reading after you register.

• George Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”

⏱️ Preparation: Less than 45 min.

### Session Description

How Do Other People’s Expectations Shape Who We Become?

We like to believe we act from our own values—that our choices reflect who we truly are. But in real life, we’re constantly being watched, evaluated, relied on, and quietly pressured. Expectations can be explicit (“Be responsible,” “Be strong,” “Don’t disappoint us”) or invisible and ambient, like the unspoken rules of a room we can feel in our bodies the second we walk in.

In this session, we’ll use George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant” to explore what happens when identity gets shaped from the outside in—by the crowd, by role, by reputation, by power, by fear of humiliation.

Orwell’s essay is a sharp portrait of how quickly we can become the person others assume we are, even when it violates our inner sense of what’s right.

This reading creates productive friction for conversation: freedom versus performance, integrity versus belonging, and private selfhood versus public identity. It asks whether we can genuinely choose in a world full of social consequence—or whether, in certain moments, we are all living inside someone else’s story about who we’re supposed to be.
In this session, we will ask:

• When do we act from conviction, and when do we act to avoid judgment or shame?
• How do other people’s expectations shape not just what we do, but who we think we are?
• What’s the difference between leadership and performance? Between responsibility and compliance?
• If fear of disappointing others is driving us, how do we reclaim agency without opting out of community?

### What Premise is like?

Join us in a welcoming, guided conversation space that invites people from all walks of life to think in public together with curiosity, openness, and respect. You do not need academic credentials or philosophical background. All you need is a willingness to read thoughtfully and reflect honestly.