Shooting An Elephant Imperialism

George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’ (Orwel, 1936) represents a number of strangers being involved in a combined encounter. The situation throughout the essay represents the unjust British occupation of Burma, the hatred towards him as a British officer and the elephant symbolising the British. The part of the text chosen clearly exemplifies how a forced duty can lead to hatred. The text chosen displays that he is forced to encounter the Burmese people yet they despise him. Although the encounter with the Burmese improves with the arrival of the elephant, Orwell still has a sense of isolation. Throughout the text Orwell questions the presence of the British in the East exploring that the encounter with the Burmese should not have took place.

Orwell starts the story with his struggle with the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” “In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves.” The narrator is upset that he is hated just for doing his job. When he actually hated his job and

Orwell portrays the vengeful feelings of the Burmese people, the colonized, towards British People, the conqueror. As he has worked as a British officer in Burma, he knows how the natives feel about the British. Of course, it was obvious that the Burmese did not welcome any kind of British presence, including Orwell himself. The Occidentals were extremely mistreated, such as being jeered, and the narrator understood that anti-European feeling was very “bitter” (Orwell, 313). He needed to deal adequately with the native society, even though he was a target of bullying. For instance, he used to get ripped up on the football field, ignored by the referee and mocked by the crowd (Orwell, 313). Hence, he is a victim of the natives’ behavior. Not only is he the target of the native’s behavior, but he is also the victim of the imperial system.

“Shooting an Elephant” is an essay written by George Orwell, who was an Assistant Superintendent in the British Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. The essay was published in 1936. Burma was occupied by the British over a period of 62 years (1823-1886) and it was directed as a province of India until it became a separate colony in 1937. In the essay, Orwell narrates the scene of the killing of an elephant in Burma and expresses the feelings that he goes through during the event. The writer’s theme is that imperialism is not an effective way of governing. It can be decoded through his

Shooting an Elephant is a short anecdote written by George Orwell. The story depicts a young man (Orwell) who has to decide whether to bend the rules for his superiors or to follow his own path. George Orwell works as the sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, a town in the British colony of Burma. He, much like the rest of the English military are disrespected by the Burmese due to the English invading their territory and taking over. Over time, Orwell, the narrator, has already begun to question the presence of the British in the Far East. He says that, theoretically and secretly, he was “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Orwell describes himself as “young and ill-educated,” bitterly hating his job. Orwell uses powerful imagery and diction to convey a depressing and sadistic tone to the story. At the end of the story, he faces a dilemma: to kill the elephant or not.

The glorious days of the imperial giants have passed, marking the death of the infamous and grandiose era of imperialism. George Orwell's essay, Shooting an Elephant, deals with the evils of imperialism. The unjust shooting of an elephant in Orwell's story is the central focus from which Orwell builds his argument through the two dominant characters, the elephant and its executioner. The British officer, the executioner, acts as a symbol of the imperial country, while the elephant symbolizes the victim of imperialism. Together, the solider and the elephant turns this tragic anecdote into an attack on the institution of imperialism.

Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell is set in Burma when it was once a British colony. The story is told by a first-person narrator serving in Burma as a British policeman who is hated and seen as an oppressive figure of white English society. A rogue elephant had killed a Burmese man; the action of the story revolves this concern. When the narrator finds the rogue elephant standing peacefully in a field, his first intentions are not to kill the elephant. He shoots the elephant several times when he knows that the large crowd behind him expect him to take the elephant down. He can not stand watching the elephant suffering and eventually leaves. Thomas Foster’s

Shooting an elephant is a true story about George Orwell as he is an Imperial policeman in lower Burma. He is called one day about an elephant that is loose, and is wreaking havoc. When he arrives he wants to scare the elephant away but eventually shoots the elephant to save face. While he is looking for the elephant he asks the villagers which way the elephant went. The villagers give conflicting reports of the elephant's whereabout. The killing of the elephant, the information provided by the villagers, and the pressure of the crowed Orwell says “I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, Irresistibly.”(323) are examples of metaphors for the tensions between the villagers and the British.

The elephant is a strong and resilient species. Killing one is no easy task. The animal can only be taken down with multiple shots from one of the highest caliber rifles a man can operate singlehanded. Only a precise and well placed shots from a powerful outside force can kill such a being. For this reason, it is the perfect symbolic catalyst for George Orwell in his essay “Shooting an Elephant”.

He is against whom he is working for (the India Imperial Police). Orwell says, “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (320). He also says, “ As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear” (320). Along with hating who he worked for, Orwell hated the way his kind treated the Burmese and felt guilty cause of it. Orwell states, “The wretched cages of the lock-ups, the gray, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with

Imperialism is a single entity that is still present at this time. In “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell shares his experiences of oppression and imperialism by the British as it unfolds in front of him. How does this tie into modern day circumstances, some may wonder. Three Metaphors like being an actor in a leading role, strings being pulled like a puppet, or a conjurer performing a magic trick are just a few Orwell mentions and can be compared to working in an environment with oppressed feelings.

George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant”, narrated the story of him shooting a “must” elephant when he was a police officer in Burma. He was both, furious of the Burmese men and hated the British imperialism. The locals always mocked him and cheated him as he was an European. Orwell, one day, was told of an elephant which had been rampaging across the “bazaar”. He took his rifle along with him and set out to the town, to find more details and to analyze the situation. On his way, he learnt that the “must” elephant had broken its chains and escaped on the previous night. The elephant’s caretaker who had gone in pursuit of the elephant had taken the wrong direction and was twelve hours away. He also came to know that the elephant had caused so much damage, which also included the destruction of a hut, stall and

The British Empire is known for their infamous capture of many small countries in Southeast Asia such as Burma. Their imperialism was known as “ the White man’s burden” to help cultivate underprivileged countries. Orwell described his view as, ...“already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I checked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically- and secretly, of course- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear.

George Orwell starts his essay Shooting an Elephant by clearing stating his point of view about British Imperialism. He says that it is evil and that he is for the Burmese and was against their oppressors, the British. Even though Orwell is a British officer at the time, he feels guilt and hatred for his empire, himself and the “evil spirted beast who made his job impossible,” the Burma people. Orwell writes about not just his own experiences with the elephant but the metaphors imperialism and his views on the matter.

The story "Shooting an Elephant," is set in Moulmein, Burma and written by George Orwell. The narrator tells the story in first-person point of view. The audience in this story is imperial Britain and Europeans. The purpose of this story was to show the oppression of the British imperial rule, he also shows how peer pressure can force you to do things that you may not want to do. The tone in the beginning section of the story is angry because Orwell shows his hatred of the British imperial rule and the way they have treated the Burmese people, it then becomes tragic and depressing when he explains the events leading to and after the shooting of the elephant.