British Imperialism in India in Shooting an Elephant, an Essay by George Orwell

A Critique of Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant"

George Orwell is well known for his honest perspective on political issues and other aspects of life throughout his writings, especially the essay Shooting an elephant, which is based on his own experience of the British imperialism in India. The essay is about the act of killing an elephant which turns out to be a matter of moral values, compassion or pride and ego for a policeman serving the English government in India. With a well-formed organization and clear diction, George Orwell discreetly addresses the narrator's struggle with his job, his empire and within himself to unveil the harsh reality of a current political situation, imperialism. The story takes place in Moulmein, Burma, a colony of the British government.

The main character is an English police officer working there who is dealing with his internal conflict. He holds a deep hatred towards his own job and the British imperialism. Although he has a distaste for the hatred from the Burmese, he actually feels sympathy for those people, who have been suffering from the cruel imprisonment of his empire. However, he cannot share this thought with anyone due to "the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East" ("Shooting an Elephant" 182). All of a sudden, an event occurs and forces him to choose between his inner conscience and the outward expectation. He is assigned the duty to kill an elephant that is causing damage to the villagers. As soon as he receives his mission, he takes a rifle with him to shoot down the animal. However, upon arriving, the narrator finds a normal creature which seems so harmless.

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Therefore, he decides not to shoot, but the crowd of native people that has gathered and followed him demand a show. So the policeman is left with his inner battle: kill the elephant and fulfill the villagers' expectation, or let the animal live and leave with a clear conscience. Yet, under the pressure of being a leader who has to uphold his reputation, the man resolves to end the elephant's life. The animal suffers a painful death after several shots. Unable to witness such agonizing scene, the policeman leaves the place immediately. In the aftermath, the narrator is relieved because his fellow Europeans agree that he did the right thing and he also bore no humiliation in front of the Burmese. Yet, he concludes, "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool" ("Shooting an Elephant" 186).

As described above, the story revolves around the narrator's inner conflict over his empire, over the Burmese and within himself. At the beginning, a strong hostile attitude of the natives towards the police officer and all other Europeans is clearly portrayed in such behaviors as "if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress" (181), or when they tripped the policeman during a football game, or those young priests who jeer at Europeans all the time. Obviously, he feels humiliated by those acts and upset with the Burmese, whom he calls "evil-spirited little beasts" ("Shooting an Elephant" 181), but deep inside, he takes pity on those natives, who are going through the British imperialism. His feeling of hatred towards the dictatorship of his government in which he describes, "imperialism is an evil thing" is another struggle he has to deal with. Bearing a disapproved perspective on the wrong doings of his empire and sympathy for the natives, he is left with no one to share these thoughts. His point of view towards imperialism is evident that it is nothing but disgust.

Adding to the matter, the real dilemma that forces him to choose between self-image with power and his conscience soon occurs. He has to kill an elephant to satisfy the demand of the natives and fulfill his supposed role as a leader: *a sahib has got to act like a sahib" ("Shooting an Elephant"185). The choice and use of words of the author produce the meaning of the essay. There are a lot of informal words that can be found in everyday life conversations which express the author's personal ideas and opinions like "petty" ("Shooting an Elephant" 181), "damn shame"( "Shooting an Elephant" 186), "damn Coringhee"( "Shooting an Elephant" 186). Also, Latins words such as "saccula sacculorum" meaning eternity and "in terrorem" meaning to fear are also used to illustrate the main character's thought throughout the two continuous passages. Furthermore, the word "must, which means aggressiveness and sexual activities for male elephant, according to Wikipedia, is repeated several times to emphasize the condition the animal is undergoing at the moment and also to justify for the man's action.

Local words are found in the text as well, such as "mahout" (a person who works with, rides, cares for an elephant), or "sahib" (to address European men in India in the past), or "bazaar" (market) according to Oxford dictionary. Besides, the words used to describe the Burmese like "yellowish", "beast", "devilish", hideous", "damn" show a racial perspective from a white man. However, the narrator still shows his grief at their sufferings. Also, the long description of the agony of the dying elephant written places emphasis on the creature's painful death which is moving.

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