George Orwells Shooting an Elephant - Essay Example

George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant The story starts with a thoughtful introduction to the narrator’s action where he comments about being a colonial policeman among British Burma within the twentieth century. He says he got hated by many people and that the feeling of being an anti-European was unpleasant. A European woman crossing the market, was likely to be spat upon and a sub-divisional police man made a more inviting victim. At a soccer match, one Burmese player intentionally fouled the narrator. The Burmese referee conveniently looked their direction and the entire Burmese crowd laughed repulsively. The action of shooting an elephant starts when the narrator gets a telephone call about an elephant destroying the Bazaar. He takes his hunting rifle and a horse ride to the area where the animal is. He remarks on the filth and poverty of the area, with the thatched huts and scattered houses on the hillside. The narrator takes part in colonialism by proving his power and self-esteem to the natives. He uses the elephant as a symbol of colonialism, showing power of a wild animal, that is taking control over the village. By so doing, he makes the understanding that the power behind colonialism is as strong as its rulers. The narrator’s moral values get challenged, ironically enough, yet he too was an oppressor. He faces an extremely important decision, whether he should shoot the elephant or let it go. If he shoots the elephant he gets to be a hero to these people: if he does not to shoot it, he will be giving in to the colonial force behind the animal which he finds as unfair and wicked. Letting the elephant go free without harm, will make the natives laugh at him. The narrator symbolizes the elephant as a force that is greater than the ability to kill. He takes several shots in order to kill the elephant, and a longer time for it to die. His decision to kill the elephant is a result of repression. This repression may go further than they would imagine and even interfere with the oppressor’s lives. The elephant is taken as a controlling force over the narrator. This is compared to a colonialist. The mad elephant represents the British Empire. The empire is as powerful as the elephant on rampage. Raiding the marketplace by the elephant symbolizes the British Empire raiding the Burma economy. When he kills the elephant, he represents the British repressing the natives. After he had started out to see it, some Burmese people stopped him on the way and told him about the elephant’s doings. It was not a wild elephant. The only person, who could manage in that kind of state, had run in the wrong direction. The Burmese people had no weapons and were quite helpless against it. As part of India and the British Empire, Burma declared war on Germany in 1914. Its people fought on many war fronts. The British colonial authorities mobilized the Indian workers who got sent to the military operation in British troops occupied parts of Mesopotamia and other countries. India supplied the British army with grain. All Indian troops operations were funded by the Indian population. This caused hunger and hardships that led to rebellions. Repressions began, and in 1915 a law was passed. It allowed pursuit of politically dangerous rebels, particularly, sending journalists to prison without trial, and carrying out censorship. Just like the actions of the elephant ravaging the marketplace, actions of British administration were rude and unwise. The elephant was not wild, representing the British administration that allowed many freedoms like the elections of Indian government. The British still took the wrong direction, like the elephant’s mahout. The description of the elephant’s appearance and the narrator’s reluctance to kill it also stand for the British Empire. The locals had no interest in the elephant as it ravaged their homes, but now that it was going to be shot they wanted the meat. There was no real struggle against the British administration until the Mahatma Gandhi’s nationalist movement. It was immediately after the infamous First World War when people started to feel the weakness of the colonial system and the possibility of independence. The narrator is reluctant to shoot the elephant. He compares the act of shooting a working elephant to that of destroying a valuable piece of machinery. Orwell understood that ruining the Empire and the existing order of things will lead to unpredicted results. He was right. Rebellions and civil wars in Burma ended only in 2008. Independence that was granted in 1948, cost thousands of lives afterwards, and Orwell understood that it had to be done. Sooner or later the colonial system had to be destroyed. The long and painful death of the elephant represents the long and painful death of colonialism. The British Empire was reluctant to collapse. After its collapse, its former colonies made use of the infrastructure, political system, education, and all other benefits of civilization: just as they stripped the elephant’s body to the bones. It suggests that despite his negative attitude to imperialism, Orwell also considered its significant contribution to the development of colonized countries. The rifle symbolizes the harsh force by the British rule colonialists. In this Burmese village, only the British could own guns. This enabled them to look like demi-gods to the Burmese people and rule over them. The narrator symbolically explains how he cruelly used it to kill the elephant, not to keep the villagers from harm, but to emphasize his superiority over them. The narrator himself is a living symbol of everything was bad about the colonial British rule, and he knew about it. He tells of how the young Buddhist priests were bad. There were many of them in the town yet all they did was standing on street corners mocking Europeans. The body of the dead coolie represented the oppressed Burmese. The narrator says his arms are outspread like those of Christ during crucifixion. Football soccer symbolized the British imposing their culture on their Burmese colony. Modern soccer started in England in the 19th Century. The mud in the surrounding stood for the shabbiness where the Burmese lived in under British rule. It also symbolized the political slush the British made of themselves as they colonized India and Burma. Work Cited Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." Essay Writing for Canadian Students.6th ed. Editors Kay L. Stewart, Chris J. Bullock and Marian E. Allen. Scarborough: Prentice Hall, 2008. 313-320. Read More