George Orwell Shooting An Elephant Analysis

In 1936, author George Orwell wrote an essay titled “Shooting an Elephant”. In the essay Orwell describes a scene of a British police officer who is stuck between having to shoot an elephant. The story takes place in Burma, India where then, they were under British imperialism. Imperialism is a policy of extending a country's power and influence through diplomacy or military force. It humiliates the occupied people, reducing them to an inferior status in their own country. Analyzing Orwell’s work, I realize that Orwell feels Imperialism is not good for both the people subject to and the people of the imperial power. The fact that the main character of the story is an officer of the imperial government, but also in opposition to imperialism
Although a representative of British power, the narrator sympathizes with the oppressed natives and their country but is forced to act according to imperial aims. When the narrator receives a call, he is commissioned to bring a runaway elephant under control. In order to defend himself in the case of an attack, he takes a rifle, which makes the natives think that the elephant is going to be shot. When the narrator arrives, he finds a peaceful elephant eating, which offers no danger. He feels as if he should not shoot, but there is the mass of natives, or as he calls “yellow faces” behind him that demand the police officer shoot the elephant. After an inner struggle, the narrator finally gives in to the power of the natives’ demanding and shoots. He has to fire several shots for the animal to die painfully. The officer cannot stand the sight and leaves while the natives have already started tearing the elephant apart. “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”. He admits that shooting the elephant was necessary as a means of demonstrating the power and ensure British