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Corruption Of British Rule And Imperialism In George Orwell's Shooting An Elephant

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Corruption of British Rule and Imperialism: The killing of an Elephant Shooting an Elephant explores the parallels between Britain’s imperialism and a British officer’s moral quandary with killing an elephant. Orwell’s use of political critique is not lost in Shooting an Elephant. George Orwell’s distrust and dislike of British rule is a common theme in most of his works like 1984 and Animal Farm, and is the hidden main idea of the Shooting an Elephant. By using themes of tyranny and conscience and symbols like the elephant Orwell conveys his contempt for Britain and imperialism as a whole.
Shooting an Elephant takes place in 1920’s Burma which is now known as Myanmar. At this time Burma had lost a sixty-year fight with Britain and was under British rule. The Burmese people and the British officers that keep them in line are in a constant state of tension with each other. George Orwell was a British soldier in Burma from 1922 to 1927 (Kozak 64) much like the main character of this essay. Shooting an Elephant is written in first person, and in this way, the essay can be seen as an autobiography. Orwell has long been known for is distrust of government, and uses this distrust in his writings. In Shooting an Elephant Orwell conveys the life of a British soldier in Burma and the struggle of obtaining power from a source that is hated. In many of Orwell’s writings his distaste for government is accompanied by a fondness for the lower class. The soldier in Shooting an Elephant

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