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Shooting an Elephant

by George Orwell

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Orwell's Elephant Shooting as a Metaphor for Imperialism

Summary:

In George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant," the narrator's decision to shoot the elephant serves as a metaphor for the destructive nature of imperialism. Despite not wanting to kill the animal, the narrator feels compelled by the expectations of the local Burmese crowd, highlighting the irony that those in power are often controlled by those they dominate. This act reflects how imperialists sacrifice their own freedom and morality to maintain authority, illustrating the hollow and oppressive nature of imperial rule.

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What does Orwell's decision to shoot the elephant in "Shooting an Elephant" reveal about imperialism?

In the essay "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, the narrator, presumably Orwell himself, tells of an experience he has while working as a police officer in Moulmein, a town in Burma. One day he receives a call that a crazed elephant is loose in the town and inflicting damage. He grabs a rifle, mounts a pony, and goes in pursuit.

When he comes upon a man who has been killed by the elephant, the narrator leaves the pony and sends for a larger elephant rifle. As he approaches the paddy field where the elephant has stopped to eat, most of the people in that part of the village are behind him. They not only want to witness the curiosity of an elephant being shot, but they want to take the meat. The narrator reasons that he should not shoot the elephant now that its crazed moment...

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has passed, but he realizes that he has to do it anyway to satisfy the immense crowd behind him. He finally does shoot the elephant. It takes a long time to die, and the narrator ultimately realizes that he has done it "solely to avoid looking a fool."

The narrator makes it clear at the beginning of the essay that even before the incident with the elephant he is convinced that "imperialism was an evil thing." He is "all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British." He hates his job, although he also hates the treatment he receives from the Burmese, all sorts of petty annoyances and cruelties that let him know he is not welcome in their land. He is torn between "my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my life impossible."

This tension between his sympathy and disdain for the local people is ongoing, but when the incident with the elephant occurs, he says that "it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism—the real motives for which despotic governments act." He comes to this realization as he is observing the elephant in the paddy before shooting it.

And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd—seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom he destroys.

In other words, when imperialists attempt to subjugate the people of other lands, the price of conquest is the loss of their own freedom. This is what the narrator learns of the real nature of imperialism.

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That those who are in control are often controlled is clearly a point to George Orwell's "On Shooting an Elephant."  Because of the British rule and control over the Burmese, the Burmese themselves placed certain expectations upon their rulers.  Here is the irony of power, an irony that Orwell feels intensely as he feels it contingent upon himself to destroy the magnificent animal.  It is equally ironic that the animal Orwell must shoot as he does the "dirty work of Empire" is an elephant, so often symbolic of power.

And as the poor beast dies slowly and in great agony with the "mysterious, terrible change" coming over him, the elephant also becomes symbolic of the of slow death of Britain's great empire.

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In my opinion, what this taught Orwell is that the people who are supposedly in control in an imperial system (the colonizers) are not truly in control.  They are often forced to do things that they do not think are a good idea or even things that they do not think are morally right.  They have to do these things simply to maintain their image and their ability to seem to be in control.

Orwell feared that the natives would think he was weak if he did not shoot the elephant.  If they thought he was weak, he and all English would look bad.  This would make it harder for them to control their native subjects.

So the point is that when you start to imperialize, you are no longer able to act based on your own convictions and values.  Instead, you have to act so as to keep your control over your subjects.

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Why did Orwell shoot the elephant and what does this illustrate about his views on imperialism?

The British officer stationed in Lower Burma has absolutely no intention of shooting the elephant. However, a massive crowd of Burmese natives begins to gather around him after he attains a powerful rifle and searches for the elephant. When the British officer finds the elephant, the majestic beast is grazing peacefully on a plot of land and is no longer a threat to the village. However, the officer feels a massive amount of peer pressure from the native crowd to shoot the elephant against his will. Moments before killing the elephant, the British officer experiences an epiphany and demonstrates his understanding of imperialism by mentioning,

I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. (Orwell, 3)

Essentially, the British officer feels forced to act resolute and callous in front of the Burmese natives because he is an extension of the ruling imperialist regime. He must act against his conscience and carry out actions simply to save face and impress the natives. At the end of the story, the narrator admits that he shot the elephant "to avoid looking a fool."

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