Examples Of Imperialism In Shooting An Elephant

An Elephant-Sized Dilemma Everyone, of all ages and time periods, faces a moral dilemma. This may be about a smaller problem or matters of life and death that have a far more wide-ranging impact, such as imperialism. In George Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant,” an unnamed narrator, despite his initial reluctance, succumbs to collective pressures to shoot a marauding elephant in Lower Burma. Orwell comments on the dangers of collective pressure and the horrors of imperialism in order to explore the moral dilemmas of imperialism in the short story “Shooting an Elephant.” Orwell employs simile and connotation relating to a spectacle to describe the collective pressure on the narrator, thus creating conflict, and criticize that pressure. As the
At the beginning of the short story, the narrator reflects on “[t]he wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey-cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been bogged with bamboos” (Orwell 1). All of these words have extremely negative connotations - “wretched,” “stinking,” “grey-cowed”, and “scarred” to name a few. This loaded language contributes to Orwell’s argument by describing the horrors of imperialism with vivid detail and horrid diction that makes the reader abhor the practices of imperialism. It creates an image of horror in the reader’s mind. Furthermore, the alliteration of the “b” sound in the “scarred buttocks of the men who had been bogged with bamboos” creates an image of repeated lashes of quite strong force. This serves to illustrate the severity of imperialist punishment, even for the lightest of crimes. Furthermore, this illustrates the injustice of the British system of imperialism and how punishments are overwhelmingly severe. Thus, Orwell criticizes the imperialist system of punishment through his use of this extremely negative diction about the treatment of the Burmese people, and implicitly criticizes imperialism itself as an agent of repression. Furthermore, Orwell criticizes the lack of political representation accorded to natives in the imperialist system. His narrator thinks
The loaded language, all words with highly negative connotations, creates a highly negative and critical tone of the British Empire. Additionally, Orwell’s description of the highly restrictive British rule on Burma reinforces the reader’s disgust of the whole process which totally turns the Burmese into a subservient class of people, bereft of any opportunities for advancement. The negative tone reiterates Orwell’s opposition to the British Empire’s practices. However, in addition to his criticism of British imperialism in particular, Orwell also “suggests that humanity will remain perennially liable to its own basest motives, empire succeeding empire, world without end” (Bertonneau 263). Thus, Orwell’s critique of imperialism is not over just the evils of British imperialism, but of imperialism throughout the entire world. His description of this particular brand of British imperialism serves as an example of the effects that imperialism can have on a local population. The reader might dismiss Orwell as critical of the British Empire only, while calling their own imperialism “enlightened,” but Orwell does not limit his criticism to solely the British Empire; instead, he argues against the extension of imperialism throughout the world, both in geography and in time, as Bertonneau highlights. With the collective pressures of the crowd combined with the narrator’s hatred of imperialism, the narrator