Shooting An Elephant Summary
Shooting an Elephant
Summary:
Set during the early 1900’s, the narrator recount his experiences as an English police officer stationed in Burma. He often describes that the British presence there were greatly despised and that he himself has been a target multiple times by the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (229) Being there to do the dirty work of the British empire, the narrator gets to see what imperialism really is and despises it. The narrator himself said, “For at the time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.” (229), but of course, he couldn’t carry this view publicly or he would be branded as a traitor.
Up until shooting the elephant, the narrator was against shooting it because it was docile and harmless if left alone. But from the pressure of the crowd, which were in the thousands that followed him, gave conflict to his prior judgment. “But I did not want to shoot the elephant. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. . . . Besides, there was the beast’s owner to be considered. . . . But I had got to act quickly. I turned to some experienced-looking Burmans who had been there when we arrived, and asked them how the elephant had been behaving. They all said the same thing: he took no notice of you if you left him alone, but he might charge if you went too close to him.” (232)
At this point, the narrator, who is in a position of power and has a gun in hand, began to realize that he doesn’t have control over his power. Rather he is just a puppet pushed by the pressure from the crowd of natives to do what they want. This is a metaphor of how Britain became the rulers of Burma but yet, ironically, was made the subjects of the Burmese natives.
Another key point Orwell had present is that imperialism hurts both of the parties. It is obvious that
Summary:
Set during the early 1900’s, the narrator recount his experiences as an English police officer stationed in Burma. He often describes that the British presence there were greatly despised and that he himself has been a target multiple times by the Burmese people. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (229) Being there to do the dirty work of the British empire, the narrator gets to see what imperialism really is and despises it. The narrator himself said, “For at the time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.” (229), but of course, he couldn’t carry this view publicly or he would be branded as a traitor.
Up until shooting the elephant, the narrator was against shooting it because it was docile and harmless if left alone. But from the pressure of the crowd, which were in the thousands that followed him, gave conflict to his prior judgment. “But I did not want to shoot the elephant. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him. . . . Besides, there was the beast’s owner to be considered. . . . But I had got to act quickly. I turned to some experienced-looking Burmans who had been there when we arrived, and asked them how the elephant had been behaving. They all said the same thing: he took no notice of you if you left him alone, but he might charge if you went too close to him.” (232)
At this point, the narrator, who is in a position of power and has a gun in hand, began to realize that he doesn’t have control over his power. Rather he is just a puppet pushed by the pressure from the crowd of natives to do what they want. This is a metaphor of how Britain became the rulers of Burma but yet, ironically, was made the subjects of the Burmese natives.
Another key point Orwell had present is that imperialism hurts both of the parties. It is obvious that