George Orwell, in his account of the events that caused and led up to his shooting of an elephant, reflects on the implications of British Imperialism, and how it had rendered him, like many of his European counterparts nothing but hollow puppets. He had long grown to hate the imperialist practices of Britain in then Burma, working as a police officer there. Though having no formal education, Orwell existed on the ground level of the colonized East, and much to his dismay, the locals, sneered and greatly disrespected him. He cited how the Indians would look at him with contempt, and some would even trip him up, much to the amusement of others. In his account, Orwell mentions the utter contempt with which the Buddhist Priest, in particular, had toward Europeans (Orwell 133). He highlights how these Priests had nothing better to do than to stand in and around the town and curse at the British. So lonely he felt among the people of Lower Burma, alienated both by his position as a police officer of the British Empire and by the oppression that they felt under him. In this world, Orwell has no confidants, and he spends his life in the solitude known well to other British persons in then Burma.
When an elephant, evidently unwilling to be held captive and in chains any longer, breaks free and starts rampaging around the town, Orwell is called upon by the people to look into the matter. The elephant itself was tame, however, being chained up for so long forced it to undergo ‘must.’ Upon arrival at the scene, Orwell begins to note that the Indians do not know the exact whereabouts of the elephant, and it is only after they discover the trampled body of one of the natives does he send for a more powerful rifle, preferably one that could enable him to vanquish the large animal. The body had been twisted and bitterly contorted under the weight of the elephant’s weight after it had savaged the innocent Indian man (Orwell 135). As he set out to find the elephant, Orwell began to notice the crowd of natives following him, ostensibly excited about the show to come. In the paddy fields, the elephant stood, grazing and cleansing itself. It seemed no more harmful than a cow to Orwell, who knew then, as he observed the giant creature, that he did not want to kill it. However, the crowd compelled him to go through with it, for he could not be seen as a fool or a coward in front of the natives. Orwell proceeded the shoot the elephant multiple times, unsuccessful in his endeavor to end its life immediately. Eventually, he left it to die, and in the aftermath of the incident, he reflects on the fact that he shot the beast not because he wanted to, but because he, as a British policeman in colonial India, could not be seen as a fool.
Response
In Shooting an Elephant, Orwell describes how the single incident, helped solidify his stance regarding British Imperialism. In the story, Orwell first describes his experiences working in colonial India, and the hostility that British Imperialism had bred between Europeans and Indians. This type of criticism against imperialism was perhaps vested in Orwell’s moral compass, which affirmed that all men are equal and ought to be allowed to undertake their affairs freely and without undue oppression. The story itself is indeed quite unfortunate, first with the demise of an Indian man after being brutalized by the elephant, and second by the slow and agonizing death that came of the elephant.
However, Orwell’s more substantial lament was that British Imperialism had robbed the white-man of his freedom and his soul. By forcefully subjugating a population, one only creates fierce and unrelenting enmity between the colonizers and the natives and by no means, provides the so-called ‘civilization’ that had initially they set out. As he stood overlooking the paddy fields, gazing at the elephant, Orwell is momentarily captured not only by its sheer enormity, and its grandmotherly demeanor. At this moment, he realizes one profound thing, which he did not want to kill it. He had never thought of killing an elephant before, and he did not want to do it now. However, the crowd behind him had gathered. They had heard him send for the rifle and now were eager to see the white man use the magnificent creation that was the rifle.
Orwell decision to shoot the elephant was not his own. Instead, that choice had been made for him by the British Empire and their presence in Lower Burma. It had been made for him by the crowd, which after the death of one of their own, looked to the white man with the rifle, and expected him to be resolute in his decision to kill the animal and to execute it for them all to witness. Orwell was acutely aware of this, and he could feel all two thousand wills edging him on, and as such, he knew he had to do it. The narrative, thought a relatively short one by Orwell, is indicative of the rot that was the British colonial endeavor and reveals why it could not be sustained. By robbing the people of India, as well as other colonies, of their freedom, the British had not conquered them so much as they had convicted themselves of acting as their hollow and soulless masters.
Works Cited
Orwell, George. Shooting an Elephant. 1st ed., London, 1936.
