"Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell

Questions that the author attempts to answer:
1. What is the perspective of individuals who work on behalf of the colonial power?
2. What role do the natives play in how an officer does their job?
3. What effects does colonialism have on the colonial power?

In looking back on the history of the colonial period, much of the attention is focused on the colonial power and the subjects under the colonial rule. We discuss how the interests of the colonizing country came to fruition, from the extracting of natural resources to using coerced workers to create cheaper costs. We also look from the perspective of the natives, seeing the horrible working conditions they had to endure, the destruction of their native culture, and the deaths of many family members. However, not as much thought is given to the people who worked on behalf of the colonial power.

            In his piece “Shooting an Elephant”, George Orwell recalls a personal experience when he was a police officer for the British Empire in Burma. While a majority of this exposition was about his story killing an elephant, he states his position on the colonial circumstance as thus, “I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (1). Orwell comes to this conclusion from all the atrocities that he has witnessed during his tenure as the police officer. He says that he could “see the dirty work of [the] Empire at close quarters” (1). He is very critical of the British and towards the colonialist model that had been used by so many nations in Europe.

            Although Orwell shows his disdain for European colonialism, he also realizes that it is going to be difficult to demolish it. The elephant in this piece is used not to just tell a story, but is symbolic of the beast that is colonialism. One shot was not able to kill the elephant. It took multiple shots for the elephant to then collapse, but it still did not die. Orwell describes the beast as “powerless to move and yet powerless to die” (7). All of this is a metaphor of a system that is going to be hard to eradicate. Colonialism greatly benefitted the European countries that they will not give them up so easily, just like how the elephant was holding on for its life. Orwell fears that colonialism, amidst all of its egregious aspects, will sustain. However, just like the elephant, it will be gone.