“Shooting an Elephant” is a biographical essay written in 1936 by George Orwell’s who was born in India but grew up in Great Britain. He finds himself as a police chief in Burma most of which who despised because of their British ties. The Burmese had the feeling that he was an imperialist that is out to get them. His opinion about imperialism is that “when the white man turns tyrants, it is his freedom that he destroys. This means when a person becomes a tyrant, that person is giving up his or her own freedom because now he or she has to take on the role of an oppressor and this role, in turn, requires one to be detached to one’s creed.
During the 1700s Burma had a strong economy, mercantilism, and trade. This all went away after Britain invaded the country and start the war, this seemingly stable country began to crumble gradually. As the British rose to greater wealth and the Burmese diminish into poverty. This tension between Burma and Great Britain began in 1824 and took place for almost a century. Orwell’s revealed the ugly aspect of the British Empire, he mentions the jails and the cages people are in, “ The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lockup, the gray, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flooded with bamboos. He mentions that there are entitled British feeling among the populous which is natural because they’re being ruled over by this British empire. Orwell’s himself thinks that bad. His on the side of the native people, he is the enemies of these people even though he likes them on the inside. In his mind, he is on their side but physically he is a police officer in the British machinery and he has to be a cog in that larger wheel. But for them he admits, he doesn’t like them all the time because sometimes they insult him, they tripped him on the soccer field. There’s this resentment there as one would expect. “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so”.These folks are being controlled and ruled over in their own country.
They have been invaded so of course they are unhappy with that and he represents the empire so they don’t like him either. This is a tuff position to be in. So, his on a struggled already because he doesn’t like his job. He said I should have chucked up a long time ago because I already decided it was a bad thing to be part of the empire. (“ For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and go out of it the better”.p.1319). He doesn’t like imperialism, he knows that going to another country and taking it over and try to run it as its own isn’t a joke. When the elephant comes along. He finds himself acting in this role of a powerful British officer, so he should know what to do. He is supposed to be courageous and act decisively. He ends up fulfilling the role instead of following his personal will. When he says “ he wear a mask, and his face grows to fit it”.
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He is talking about the role of the empire and the role of a police officer in this empire his gonna grow to fit that role and do what a police officer is supposed to do. Instead of what he knows is right, so being in the role he takes away some of his personal freedom. Remember that he was young at the time too maybe as an older person he might have been able to courageously made a different decision. But he was fulfilling the role that was expected now the whole empire is doing something similar. The British ruling people and Burma and other places like India find themselves acting out the role instead of actually being human being following what they know to be right. Everybody kind of caught up in the system and because the system is bad and wrong then people in it start acting badly and wrongly inspire themselves because there feeling the role.
The whole empire is being examined through the land of one officer and his one experience. He shot the elephant not only because he had pressure from these thousands of people expecting him to act a certain way. That makes him frightening what would happen if he disappoints these people. He mentions “I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool”. He killed the elephant to strengthen a system of indefensible colonialism, which lowers his affiliation by prioritizing the mandate of appearance and promoting the demonstration of power more than humanism.
In conclusion, this biographical essay is impeccable to the real world because when I think about that fight that I had in high school a long time ago I can feel the same pressure that the police chief had. When everyone’s was around me and watching. I had to act because I was talking all day about what I was going to do. And now at the moment seeing the person and the crowd that was following behind me I was no longer in control because pure pressure is powerful. I did what it takes to earn respect and less feel like a coward. In life sometimes we do think to be looked in a certain way.
