Shooting An Elephant Analysis

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Imperialism is the main idea in "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell. Upon first read, it may be unknown how the story represents imperialism, but with some background information it becomes clear. Eric Blair, pen name George Orwell, was employed by the indian police as an assistant superintendent in Burma in 1922 through empirical rule; which is what “shooting an Elephant” is based on. Out of all his successful writings, “Shooting an Elephant” was the story where he took a stance against imperialism and everything that he has worked his whole life. During this time, they had taken over many countries seeing it as the “white man’s burden” to civilize non- european people. George Orwell shows his opposition to to imperialism in “shooting an elephant” by using an elephant to represent one side of imperialism and the british soldiers to represent the other half. All of which is evil.
Orwell picks an elephant to represent the british empire for a few reasons. one reason is because of the size of the elephant, its huge just like the empire. Two would be the effect of the elephant on burma. also, the author describes the elephant being evil, dirty, huddling, stinky, scared, and intolerable (Orwell 788) which are all words used to describe the british empire with their superior beliefs. To show the connection from the elephant to the british empire he uses the explanation of the death of the indian to show the terror that the elephant caused but also the terror that the british empire caused. “He was lying on his belly, with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to one side. His face was coated with mud, the eyes wide open, the teeth bared and grinning with an expression of unendurable agony.” (Orwell 788) The connection between th...

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...an elephant for killing a coolie because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie” showing that not only do they think its a shame to kill an elephant, but they are describing the indian as less human than the elephant. None of the officers were present when the main character had decided to shoot the elephant and didn’t see that he was going to make a fool of himself. The shot to the elephant was the end of imperialism in the story and that the narrative was just a puppet of the Burmese by the end.

Orwell really helps us grasp how evil imperialism is. By creating a comparison between the elephant and the british empire it shows the inevitable downfall of the british empire. Just like the elephant, the rule in Burmese ended in fatality. When the elephant was shot, it showed the shift in power in Burmese and thus, the breakdown of imperialism.

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