Shooting an elephant

• George Orwell was a Burmese sub-divisional inspector and was against the idea of colonialism but the people of Burma made him angry
• George Orwell did not know what to do with such feelings and at that time he didn't know that the British Raj was dying and the empire's following wouldn't be any better
• Ethos: appeals to imperial audiences by discussing being forced into his job like all other imperialists
• Pathos: violent descriptions of Burmese conditions → sympathy for Burmese and his guilt
• IN SAECULA SAECULORUM = unto the ages and ages
• Prostate peoples = literal description of people net down in a submissive position in respect → symbolizes submissiveness of both colonizers and colonized under British rule
• George Orwell introduces the plot of the story and foreshadows the horrific acts that solidified his understanding of how imperialism actions from a despotic government
• George Orwell is rather self-pitying: "I was hated by a large number of people - the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me"
• Elephant destroying fields = Exploited Burmese resources
• Elephant chasing the driver = colonialists act in violence even when people are submissive
• Elephants in chains by Mahout (master) = Burmese and when elephants revolt against the Mahout in must = Burmese revolt against the empire
• IN TERRORUM = to threaten/ intimidate
• The closer you get to getting information about the elephant, the vaguer the truth becomes
• George Orwell hears shouting from a bunch of old women and children and they find a dead Indian (Dravidian coolie = laborer) who was killed/ skinned alive by the elephant
• "Foot on his back and ground him to the earth": man's position symbolizes Burma as it is at the bottom of the barrel due to colonial rule
• "Arms crucified": innocent man was sacrificed → connection to Christ
• "(Never tell me, by the way, that the dead look peaceful. Most of the corpses I have never looked devilism"): directly addresses the audience and highlights how wrong imperialism is due to the graphic descriptions of its consequences
• "Great beast's foot … neatly as one skin a rabbit" = compares the death of the man to that of a rabbit → dehumanizing and "great" reflects the superior and harsh tactics used by the British to leave Burma raw and humiliated
• "Crowd of Naked Children" → emphasizes the vulnerability of the next generation that Orwell mentioned that he didn't know would come after the death of the British Raj → here he hints the British Raj is worse
• Orwell's orderly arrives with a hunting rifle and the Burmese gather around him like an "English crowd" (humanizes them) to watch Orwell kill the elephant
• Burmese were probably excited as they saw that it was not them the British were mistreating but something else that was previously hurting them as well
• Since the Elephant also represents the British empire → they were happy to see its death → uneased the author
• Orwell doesn't want to kill the elephant because he has humanized it too much in his head. Continues to refer to the elephant as "him" and calls his vibe a "grandmotherly air"
• The elephant described to be tearing grass and eating it → British Raj taking Burma's resources
• The author further tells us he doesn't want to shoot the elephant as it is costly and like machinery → Orwell is not decisive
• "Conjurer about to perform a trick. They did not like me … magic rife…worth watching" → The imagery here touches the idea that though the white man is seen as a powerful magician it's a particularly apt image as the authority that the British have on Burma is just a trick or illusion
• Orwell describes himself as feeling powerless while holding the rifle
• Emphasizes that Orwell is just playing a part. He is the oppressor cause that is what is expected of him
• "LARGE animal" → large population of Burmese → reflection of his guilt
• "Murder to shoot him"
• Describes the worth of the elephant to be more alive → Reflects how the British empire only existed because of the belief in imperialism and the reason it did not destroy as it was profitable and to abandon it would/ shoot the elephant would be costly
• Describes the attitude of the Burmese toward the British as the attitude of Orwell to the Elephant as they both tolerate each other to prevent deadly consequences
• George Orwell describes that he ought to leave the elephant → what the British empire ought to do
• He is also scared of ending up as the dead Indian if he doesn't shoot the elephant as the crowd might kill him
• "Toad under the steam roller" = him if the elephant charges → burma if the empire charges
• If shooting the elephant symbolizes bringing down the British empire, then George Orwell's clumsy attempt = lack of knowledge to end imperialism
• "stricken, shrunken, immensely old" = when the illusion of the Brit empire is broken and its ideas will look old, outdated, and weak
• "Trumpeted for the first and only time" → first time the empire asks for help
• Burmese take the elephant's skin and flesh and tusks → empire is being robbed of what it stole
• Mahout was not repaid for the elephant's death as he was an Indian → racism