Soudabeh Sabour

Prof. Brown

English 1B

July 19, 2013

                       
what was he trying to tell us about the Empire?
why he did not follow his own will and let the animal go?
was what he did the only way he could act?

                                                        “Shooting an Elephant” 
                                                          " by George Orwell"

Eric Arthur Blair, known as George Orwell, was born in an English family in India. He worked in police department in Burma when he was young. His life in India caused him to have a special look at poverty in his books. In the story of shooting an elephant, which is a real story of him, he described the totally different life still of the natives and their hatred towards the British people. In this story he killed an elephant unwillingly. As a symbol of the British Empire among the Indians, he tried to show his power, while he felt so miserable inside. In his story he tried to use the killing of an elephant as a symbol of a bad decision made by him as a representative of the Empire.

            He directly expressed his hatred towards the imperialism as he said, “imperialism is an evil thing”. He was forced to do his job, while he was with Burmese and against the British. Working in India let him see the real “dirty” work of Empire from near. But he had no choice. He was young and not well educated and had to no other choice, which gave him a feeling of guilt too. He was between his inside hatred of the Empire and the hatred of the people he was living with. He did not know that the Empire of British is fading and dying.

            One day something “tiny” happens that made a big issue for him. There was a crazy elephant that had killed one Indian and he had to decide what to do. Against his interest he finally had to kill the poor animal. As he said, “Empire did not want to act like that, but they had to”. I think by this statement he wanted to say that when empire started, they did not want to be so tyranny, but it became the nature of it and they had to keep their power at any cost, since there was no way back. He was forced by the people’s eyes to go forward and kill the poor animal. As he said, “, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East.” he felt so helpless, but no other way to finish it in order to keep the empire’s integrity. Because as he said, “. A white man mustn't be frightened in front of natives and so, in general, he isn't frightened.” That had been the real nature of empire, an empty box. Against his will he finally shut the animal just to show he is not foolish.