Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is conveying the message that imperialism within a society creates an imbalance in power amongst individuals, where Orwell came to realize that he was not on the top of the heap but a tool to oppress the Burmese people. Orwell employs the use of metaphors to enforce his message. When Orwell states, “conjurer about to perform a trick”. This way of looking at Orwell is contrary to the way that white Europeans would be looked at in ordinarily. In this metaphor the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed are switched so that Orwell becomes the product of British oppression.
Orwell later enforces this message when he says, “Here was I, the white man with gun, standing in front of the unwarned native
crown seemingly the leading actor of the piece, but in reality, I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faced behind me.” Orwell is stating that in the show of imperialism in front of the Burmese he is the “lead actor” or the face of imperialism and his job as the face of imperialism is to kill the elephant even though he does not want to do so. This makes Orwell an “absurd puppet” with the British empire pulling his strings forcing him to do things like kill the elephant. Additionally, when Orwell states, “posing dummy” he is a person who has nothing to say just an arm of the British enforcing British rule, while forfeiting his freedom by oppressing the Burmese. George Orwell utilizes these metaphors to inform us of the effects of imperialism on those being oppressed and those doing the oppressing.