“Shooting an Elephant”
Orwell for about two years was an imperial police officer in Burma. The Barman’s hated the British because they were their oppressors and did not like their presence in their country. Orwell hated his job and hated imperialism in general. He felt Barmans faced unfair treatment; however, Orwell also did not like the Burmans. They made his job as a police officer harder, but it also was a result of being part of the British imperialistic government. Orwell gained insight on the nature of imperialism after a call he received involving an escaped elephant that was terrorizing the Burmese people. Orwell started out tracking the elephant and wasn’t getting much help from the villagers, until he heard an old lady hurrying some kids from around the corner of a hut. When he went to investigate, he realized the old lady didn’t want the kids to see the dead body of a man. Orwell inspected the body and could tell he hadn’t been dead long and had been stomped into the mud by the elephant he was looking for.
The elephant was a working elephant and usually harmless, but was now in heat and that was the reason for his rage. After seeing how the elephant trampled the dead man, Orwell sent for a rifle in case he had to shoot the elephant. He didn’t like the fact that the situation was drawing so much attention. A crowd ensued as he continued to look for the elephant. When Orwell finally spotted the elephant he was eating grass in a field. The elephant had calmed down since killing the villager, and because of its value didn’t want to kill it. But when Orwell took note of the crowd that had developed he started feeling self-conscious. The pressure of the crowd was forcing him to do something he didn’t want to do. He believed that because he was part of the British Empire he had to display their dominance and kill the elephant. He was sure the crowd would make a mockery of him, as a white man, with a rifle in his hand and did nothing. Orwell didn’t want to leave the Burmans with that impression of him or the British Empire. Orwell believed it was a condition of their rule “He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it” (Orwell).The more Orwell watched the elephant the more he was convinced that the rage had passed. To shoot the elephant now would be wrong. Orwell wasn’t afraid to kill the elephant, but he knew it was worth a lot more alive than dead. Besides, a white man’s amongst all the natives must show dominance. Orwell eventually decided he had no other choice but to shoot the elephant. When Orwell finally shot the elephant the crowd cheered. The moment was so surreal he didn’t hear the gun go off or feel it kick. He could see the first shot had taken what seemed a long time to take an effect on the elephant. Finally the third shot was the shot that put the elephant down.
When the elephant fell the Bermans ran towards it. Orwell didn’t want the elephant to suffer so he shot the elephant with his last two remaining bullets, but it still did not die. Orwell sent for another small rifle because he wanted to end the elephants suffering. Orwell couldn’t stand hearing the elephant struggling to breathe any longer, so he left. Later, he heard it took thirty more minutes for the elephant to die, and by the afternoon the Burmans had stripped it to the bone. Of course, Orwell felt he was justified in shooting the elephant. There were even differences in opinion amongst his peers. Some felt he should have shot the elephant, while others felt the elephant was more valuable than the man it killed. Orwell knew he was legally justified in killing the elephant, but wondered did anyone realize he did it so he wouldn’t be embarrassed. “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys” (Orwell). He didn’t want to look like a fool in front of the huge crowd of Burman that watched him. The position he was in didn’t let him make the decision he truly wanted to make, and that was not to shoot the elephant.
Work Cited
Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." George Orwell 1903 - 1950. 13 June. 1997. Web. 22 Apr. 2015. <http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/elephant.html>.