Shooting An Elephant Imperialism

When Orwell was describing the burmese, he wrote “ 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”. In term of pathos, he uses language in a disgusting way and makes it known that he hates and cannot stand it where he’s at. In the documentary, there’s the positive side of spreading values, prosperity and peace and in a way, imperialism. However, even though this rhetorical piece doesn’t directly relate to the documentary, this is the negative side of Imperialism and how it can impact even the oppressor. Also, in the documentary, it just talks about spreading democracy but what we are blinded to is what happens behind. When America goes into another country to spread democracy, we rarely pay attention to what happens there or what they are actually doing there. There is less care and attention to what goes on behind than compared to attention towards the surface of spreading democracy. Not only that but, also in the text, George Orwell faced continuous mockery and embarrassment in Burma and that resulted in bad suffering for him. In Burma, even as the oppressor, he faced a constant struggle to maintain his power and his authority in front of the Burmese. As a oppressor, one would expect them to have the power and be able to maintain authority in another country but in this text, there is the opposite that is very unexpected. Overall, George Orwell’s experience in Burma represented the other side of Imperialism, which was even the one governing is affected as much as the one who is getting

As a European white man in the British colony of India, George Orwell, in his narrative essay Shooting an Elephant, describes one of his most memorable events while living in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma. Orwell’s purpose is to share the absolute horror of living in imperialism. He adopts a tense tone throughout his essay by using vivid description and gruesome imagery in order to relate the incident with the elephant to what it is like to live in 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.

The consequence of imperialism is discussed in “Shooting an Elephant”; The victim of imperialism is not only the natives but also the narrator. Indeed, this essay is about the suffering and the struggling of Orwell who is torn between the Burmese’s actions and 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

Two of Orwell’s first literary works were his essays regarding his experiences as a policeman in Burma during imperialization from Europe. These essays include “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.” In these essays, he shows his clear disagreement of oppression, even while working for the oppressors. Orwell writes

Orwell?s extraordinary style is never displayed better than through the metaphors he uses in this essay. He expresses his conflicting views regarding imperialism through three examples of oppression: by his country, by the Burmese, and by himself on the Burmese. Oppression is shown by Orwell through the burden of servitude placed upon him by England: Orwell himself, against his will, has oppressed many. British Imperialism dominated not only Burma, but also other countries that did not belong to England. At the time it may appear, from the outside, he shows us that the officers were helping the Burmese because they too were against oppressors; however, from the inside he demonstrates that they too were trying to annex other countries. Though Orwell?s handling of this subject is detailed, in the end, he subtly condemns imperialism. Orwell finds himself in a moral predicament no different than the ones placed on the white men in the East. He justifies his actions, driven by the instigation of the Burmese. Orwell also feels forced by the natives to kill the elephant, hindering his

In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell achieves two achievements : he shows us his personal experience and his expression while he was in Burma; he use the metaphor of the elephant to explain to describe what Burma looked like when it was under the British Imperialism. The special about this essay is that Orwell tells us a story not only to see the experience that he had in Burma; he also perfectly uses the metaphor of the elephant to give us deep information about the Imperialism. By going through this essay, we can deeply understand what he thinks in his head. He successfully uses the word choices and the sentences to express his feeling. By reading this essay, Orwell succeeds us with his mesmerizing sentences and shows us the

In George Orwell’s 1936 essay, “Shooting an Elephant”, Orwell thoroughly describes his position in Burma, India during a period of British imperialism. Though Orwell is a police officer working for the British, his mind varies in the feelings he has towards his position. Orwell feels ambivalence, as he thinks that his position is controversial because he despises imperialism, yet when trying to do his job and simultaneously please the Burmese, Orwell receives contempt from them. Orwell tries to convey his ambivalence and contradictory feelings by showing the extent to which he is abused in Burma using irony, by portraying the effects of his position on him using juxtaposition, and by showing his inner guilt regarding the Burmese using

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

In his essay, “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell revealed a lot about himself. Immediately Orwell explained that he served as a sub-divisional police officer in Lower Burma, surrounded by the hatred of the Burmese people because of his European background. Orwell considered the British empire an unconscionable tyranny, yet he still hated the disrespectful Burmese who torment him. The Burmese people expected Orwell to demonstrate the same authority over what was then a peaceful elephant, that the British Empire displayed over them. Orwell as an officer and in this way, upheld the image of the authority that most officers represent.

Theoretically - and secretly, of course - I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British" (p.3). Seeing the "dirty work" of the British Imperialists "oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt" (3).

From the opening line, Orwell relies on emotion. He gets straight to the point and says “In Moulmein, in lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people…” You quickly get to see the dull tone, he is going for. He continues to use “charged” words throughout the essay. “Guilt,” “hatred,” “evil-spirited little beasts” and even “guts” give us the opportunity to level with the reader. He is not trying to write a fancy composition, he is being real. We are able to see that being a colonial policeman in Burma is something he feels strongly about and has vividly experienced it, without trying to make it look good. Orwell uses the technique of irony. “A sea of yellow faces” is how he describes the crowd of natives standing behind him. The people

British rule in Burma lasted from 1824 to 1948, from province of British India to the establishment of an independently administered colony, based on Orwell’s experience as an imperial officer in Burma. The shooting an elephant show the themes of the principle, the performance, and the colonialism of Orwell in the story. First, Orwell’s service in the British Empire places his reasoned principles and his basic intuitions in constant conflict. He recognizes that the empire is tyrannical and abusive, yet he is unable to overcome his visceral contempt for the local villagers who mistreat him. When the elephant appears, Orwell could have followed his more humane or ethical impulses and chosen to spare the elephant, but Orwell ends up compromising his humane impulses and killing the elephant because he fears humiliation from the Burmese.

Prestige is all for them and they would do everything to get it. Maybe Orwell’s real impression of the Burmese wasn’t as positive as one could think while reading the passages about the behaviour of the English, sometimes he even seems to loathe the Burmese, but then again his Marxist ideas force him to write in favour of the socially disgraced. Orwell points out this conflict very consciously, as his own comment on his service in Burma proofs: “I was in the Indian Police for five years, and by the end of that time I hated the imperialism I was serving with a bitterness which I probably cannot make clear. [...] I had reduced everything to the simple theory that the oppressed are always right and the oppressors are always wrong: a mistaken theory, but the natural result of being one of the oppressors yourself. I felt I had got to escape not merely from imperialism but from every form of man’s dominion over man." (George Orwell)