Born in India in 1903, George Orwell became a well-known novelist, essayist, and a strongly opinionated person with political views. Later Orwell addressed some of the major political movements of his time such as imperialism, fascism, and communism in his essay the “Shooting of an Elephant” (1936) Orwell mainly focuses on the “real nature of imperialism”.
The story takes place in a small town of Moulmein, in Burma. Where he was appointed as the sub-divisional police officer when the British colonized Burma after the victory of the Anglo-Burmese war in 1886.
In his service, Orwell came across an incident where he happened to shoot an elephant who has gone rampage by flipping stalls and killing an Indian coolie. The Burmese wanted him to shoot the elephant who has calmed down after he destroyed the town.
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In Orwell’s view, he had no choice but to shoot the elephant as he feared letting the British Empire down and making a “fool” of himself by choosing not to shoot. Orwell fears that Burmese would not respect him which shows the “real nature of imperialism”. Orwell’s realization is that he will lose control over the Burmese’ by not satisfying their higher expectations.
Orwell’s initial dilemma was that he was stuck between the British Empire, which he saw as unjust because of the treatment by the imperialists of the Burmese, yet he also hated the Burmese who gave him a difficult time. Orwell was against imperialism as he says, “ I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing … ”. He was stuck between the British Empire as they are unjust to the Burmese.
“All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I serve and my rage against the evil-spirited little beats who tried to make my job impossible.” However, the Burmese disrespected him as he writes, “a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way.” With these actions, Orwell was fed up and was willing to give up his job. This shows us that Orwell was a socialist who secretly supported the Burmese but the Burmese made no use of him expect to frustrate him.
The death of the coolie can be symbolically represented as exploitation. Where the elephant stands for the brutality of the imperial power and the coolie is represented as a slave of the elephant. Even after one of the Burmese explained how brutally the elephant killed an Indian Coolie the sub-inspector didn’t necessarily feel the need to kill the elephant. However, he felt the need to kill the animal as soon as he knew that he can show the “real nature of imperialism” by abusing an animal.
The reason behind Orwell’s hesitation to kill the elephant was because, by the time he reached the paddy field the elephant was peaceful “And at that distance, peacefully eating, the elephant looked no more dangerous than a cow.” Orwell uses metaphor to compare the peaceful elephant to a cow eating grass on the paddy field, the elephant could potentially cause no harm to people as he was a tamed elephant.”
As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.” as the elephant looked no harm to people Orwell himself had no intension to shoot the elephant he, in fact, said, “I decided that I would watch him for a little while to make sure he did not turn savage again, and then go home.”
Orwell in his mind decided to not shoot the elephant as it was an expensive piece of machinery and he must be responsible to answer the British government “It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery … “. Neither the British Government nor the author was not in favor of killing the animal.
Initially, Orwell’s intension was to watch the elephant and return home. However, he started to realize that there were more than 2000 yellow faces behind him waiting to watch him shoot the elephant. Even though the Burmese did not like him suddenly everyone looked at him as if he was a hero “They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching.”
Everyone was waiting for him to shoot. Suddenly Orwell felt the rush for him to shoot the elephant. He was being forced by the Burmese ” I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” He explains his condition as being portrayed as a hero to Burmese but according to Orwell he is just a “puppet” trying to impress the unarmed natives” the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed crowd-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 faces behind”.
Orwell felt that he needed freedom from the Burmese who he was in charge of ” the white man turns it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of sahib”. Orwell also describes how his feelings and emotions are hidden behind the white man’s mask “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant. I had committed myself to do it when I sent for the rifle. A sahib has got to act like a sahib; … “.
Orwell fears that if he did not live up to the expectations of the Burmese then they will not disrespect only him but the British as the whole “The crowd would laugh at me. And my whole life, every white man’s life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at.”
Originally Orwell did not want to shoot the elephant, but he was mentally forced to do it anyways. Orwell could not see the elephant die. He felt guilty for killing the animal as supposed to “real nature of imperialism”.
Even though Orwell was not a supporter of imperialism he was forced to do it as he cannot let the British down. So, he shot a couple of shots at the elephant as he could not see the elephant dying slowly “He looked suddenly stricken, shrunken, immensely old, as though the frightful impact of the bullet had paralyzed him without knocking him down” as he could not see the elephant sobbing in pain he decided to shoot at the elephant multiple times to so the animal dies sooner. As soon as he fired multiple shots at the animal it took him long to die. “The thick blood welled out of him like red velvet, but still he did not die.”.
In conclusion, Is the “real nature of imperialism” good or bad? I believe that the real nature of imperialism is terrible as it leads to an unfair punishment where one knows his fault but he doesn’t get a chance to express his views but is forced to do it. Just like Orwell’s cases where he feels guilty of his actions even though he is backed up legally.
