Shooting An Elephant Imperialism

In “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell, Orwell comes across struggles with his conscience. Imperialism was a thought going through his head and was brought up throughout the story. The Burmese hated the Europeans and Orwell explains what they do to the targeted. Orwell also talks about why the Burmese should be mad at the Europeans. Another struggle he has was the shooting of the elephant and the events leading up to it. Although he had a hard time, Orwell manages to accept what he did and thinks he did what was necessary.
The Burmese are obviously upset with the Europeans. He talks about it in the story in various ways; one scene would be when he talks about the European woman going through the bazaars. “But if a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress.” (Line 4). Although Orwell is a sub-divisional police officer of the town, he was still seen as a target, he “was hated by large numbers of people.” (line 1). This shows how no matter what or who you are, the Burmese are not pleased.

Orwell describes it as “perplexing and upsetting.” (Line 13). Orwell says it himself, “in a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters.” (line 17). In fact, the Burmese has many reasons to be mad at the Europeans. When Orwell describes the prisoners, “wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, crowd faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboos.” (Line 17). He felt “an intolerable sense of guilt.” (line 20). As a result, Orwell does feel bad for the Burmese; He saw “imperialism was an evil thing.” (Line