CeRP del Sur, Atlántida, 2010 Ernesto Muniz-Junior

SHOOTING AN ELEPHANT ESSAY

The story written by George Orwell is presented as a self-experience narration by the author, who is the main character and tells about his job as a police officer in Burma, India, when a British colony.

As a British himself and in a position of control over the natives he depicts the atmosphere of that place in a time when the British Empire was reaching its inevitable end. Orwell describes the reaction his presence produced among the Burmese, which of course was of rejection, mocking, and insulting him. He even points out the fact that Buddhist´s were the most violent towards the British in what can be considered as criticism of the Buddhist religion, which is supposed to pursue peace and meditation.

However, not only does he portray how he was despised by the Burmese people, but he also makes reference to the discrimination among social classes in India “the younger men, said it was a damn shame to shoot an elephant for killing a Coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee Coolie.”

Orwell uses the episode of the elephant as the event that triggers the action of the story as well as to cause suspense about the ending-the readers wonder whether he will shoot it or not. It works as the perfect initiator of the action since an elephant wandering around, ravaging and causing disturbs was part of the job he had to deal with and put him in the uncomfortable position of doing what he thought was right or doing what he was expected to do.

The fact that the animal that was causing trouble in the story was an elephant makes the idea of killing it grotesque and much worse than had it been another, as elephants in India are tamed, live among people and are even used as a means of transport.

Being pushed to do something unnecessary, taking into account that the animal was just going through an attack of “must” which was already passing, “solely to avoid looking a fool” is what he calls “enlightening” and gave him “a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of Imperialism-the real motives for which despotic governments act.”

We can assume by his saying that, that he did not remain in that position much longer and that it was what he needed to listen to his own feelings towards the Empire “at that time I had already made up my mind that Imperialism was an evil thing (…) secretly (…) I was all for the Burmese and against the oppressors, the British.”