Themes In Shooting An Elephant

Power Struggle in Shooting an Elephant

In the essay Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell, the ideas of power, imperialism and the struggle of the British Empire are the central themes in the text. The essay is based on Orwell’s personal experience with the imperial police and the British Empire in Burma. The text begins when Orwell is expressing how much he is hated by the locals in Burma, how he was always taunted, made fun of, and laughed at. One day, he got a call saying there was an elephant that had broken its chain and escaped. It was going “must” and was acting aggressively towards the locals. He was ordered to keep the town safe from the elephant. George Orwell was born in Burma in 1903 and died in 1950. Orwell worked in Burma for

Orwell thinks that if he goes against his morals and what he thinks is right and doing what the locals want him to do, he will gain their respect and he won’t be laughed at and made fun of. The quote reads: “To come all that way, rifle in hand, with two thousand people marching at my heels, and then to trail feebly away, having done nothing - no, that was impossible. The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at” (Orwell 2460). The police officer took a rifle just to see what the state of the elephant was and to protect himself if the elephant was still in “must”. He then felt as if he had to shoot the elephant because he built up expectations and didn’t want to let the Burmese down, as he just wanted to be accepted by them and was afraid of what they would think. The police officer being laughed at proves that the citizens think they are of a higher power than him and that the police officer has less worth. The language Orwell uses highlights that the police officer felt that he was a strong figure walking all that way with the gun, when he uses the expression “two thousand people marching at my heels”. This makes him feel that he has a lot of power and authority, which is something that he does not often experience. When Orwell uses the word “feebly”, it means that he doesn’t want to back out powerless, without force, and be seen as weak, he finally wants to prove his position as a police officer. Orwell fears what the Burmese will think of him if he doesn’t do what they expect him to do. He wants to be seen as strong and capable of taking control of the situation. Orwell thought: “And suddenly, I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it from me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills