Shooting an Elephant - George Orwell

Alternativer Bildtext:

of the Burmese crowd, he shoots the Elephant couple times against his conscience until it suffers a slow death → The Burmese strip the dead Elephant to the bones • Aftermath: Indian owner is furious about the shooting, although the narrator was in the right for killing the elephant as it had killed a man → Orwell describes his own experience of shooting an angry elephant in response to the pressure from Burmese bystanders Relationship between the British and the Burmese: British: In superior position but without power over the crowd nor himself →→ intimidated Sympathizes with the oppressed & feels guilty Victim in an anti-European environment contradictory feelings: hatred for the empire ⇒ rude behavior of the Burmese Burmese: • Push the police officer to act against his conscience → use superiority in numbers and volume • Disrespect British authorities; despise British colonial masters for oppressing them → insults Anti-European feeling • Lack of bravery (e.g. to raise a riot) Atmosphere: tense, full of dissatisfaction, oppression & resistance → Colonial rulers were neither accepted nor respected by local population but detested. In the eyes of the British, indigenous people were depreciated. Nature of imperialism: COLONISER life-long struggle: guilt & bad conscience Seen as tyrant Seems powerful, yet is limited in his power → loses control destroys his own freedom ELEPHANT huge and strong animal difficult to control COLONISED help- and worthless The elephant as a symbol of the British Empire: Elephant being cold and peaceful most of the time Natives eating the elephant's meat are being turned into a gory, suffers wild, greedy crowd Local population wanting the elephant to die. EMPIRE The old elephant suffers a slow death turns out to be hollow and powerless old & fragile →→ cannot last much longer slow but painful death BRITISH EMPIRE Britain as a superior military power impossible for natives to control the Empire The colonial administration ruled the colonies calmly and efficiently. As long as natives did not rise up against their foreign government, soldiers and policemen were not a threat. Local population wanting the British to leave their country. After the departure of the British, the local population kept using the infrastructure left behind by the colonial powers. Despite all protests and independence movements, it took the British a long time to oust the British from the colonies. The narrator's dilemma: Torn between meeting the local population's expectations and shooting the elephant or following his conscience and letting the elephant - as a valuable animal - stay alive and wait for his mahout.