‘Shooting an Elephant’
In “shooting an elephant” George Orwell describes his experience as a police officer in Burma at the time colonialization. Orwell narrates a story when he had to kill an elephant because Orwell did not want to feel inferior in front of Burmese people. Also, Orwell’s encounter with the wild elephant insight him into the true nature of the imperialism. Moreover, Orwell, in “shooting an elephant”, uses elephant as a symbol of the British Empire. He explains the effects of British Empire on the people of Burma by mentioning the damage done by elephant, and by using the death of the elephant.
An encounter between an elephant and George Orwell took place because elephant’s must was due and elephant was damaging the bazaar and killed a “coolie” (Orwell 438). The elephant’s must here symbolizes the cruel nature that British Empire has reached, “It had already destroyed somebody’s bamboo hut, killed a cow and raided some fruit –stalls and devoured the stock; also, it had met the municipal rubbish van and, when … inflicted violence upon it” (Orwell 437). The elephant’s doing represent the way British Empire used to disturb people’s lives, and terror created by British Empire amongst Burmese people. Also, the killing of the coolie by the elephant represents the oppression of the British Empire on people and the frailty of people of Burma among British Empire.
Furthermore, the aggression amongst people developed even more after the coolie was killed. “They had not shown much interest in
