Shooting an Elephant

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

"Shooting an Elephant" is a Shortstory by George Orwell written during the autumn of 1936. A narrative, Orwell retells his account of shooting an elephant in British-controlled Burma as an Imperial Policeman in 1926.

Contents

[edit] Context

Britain conquered Burma over a period of sixty-two years (1824 - 1886), during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars took place, and incorporated it into its Indian Empire. Burma was administered as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate, self-governing colony; independence was attained as a result of the Aung San–Attlee agreement which guaranteed Burmese independence. Aung San was assassinated before Burma attained its independence on January 4, 1948.

With a strong interest in the lives of the working class, George Orwell (born in India to a middle-class family but brought up in Britain) held the post of Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927. Obliged to enforce the laws of an imperial power with which he fundamentally disagreed, Orwell's distaste for totalitarian regimes developed. After quitting the police, Orwell traveled back to England, where he detailed the lives of the poorest working groups in Down and Out in Paris and London and other writings.

[edit] Synopsis

In Moulmein, the main character and first person narrator is a police officer during a period of intense anti-European sentiment. Although all his sympathies lie with the Burmese, he is obligated to act in his official role as a representative of the oppressing imperial power. As such, he is subjected to constant baiting by the Burmese, especially by the Buddhist monks, whom he calls the "worst of all".

After receiving a call relating a tame elephant's rampage (due probably to the animal coming into 'musth'), the narrator, armed with a .44 caliber Winchester rifle and mounted on a pony, heads to the bazaar where the elephant has been seen. Entering one of the poorest quarters, he receives conflicting reports and contemplates leaving, thinking the incident is a hoax. The narrator then sees a village woman chasing the children who are looking at the corpse of an Indian, whom the elephant has trampled and killed. He sends an orderly to bring an elephant rifle and, followed by a crowd of roughly two thousand, heads toward the paddy field where the elephant has stopped to graze.

The narrator originally sent for the elephant gun for his own protection, and when he sees that the elephant is obviously quite docile he knows that he ought not to shoot it. He is aware, however, that the crowd fully expects him to kill the elephant, and realizes that he is, in fact, trapped by the crowd's expectations, and by his own fear of looking foolish. He realizes as well that if one empire enslaves another it places itself in a position of authority from which it cannot escape. He knows that if he decides to get closer in an attempt to gauge the musth of the elephant and if he has misjudged the animal's mood, his poor rifle skills assuredly result in his death - perhaps to the delight of the crowd. From this the narrator concludes that he can not avoid shooting this magnificent animal.

Aiming at his perceived location of the elephant's brain, the narrator fires a shot which brings the elephant to its knees. After another shot, the elephant gains its footing only to be brought down with a third round. The elephant being still alive, the narrator fires two more heavy rounds and then a clip of regular rifle rounds into the beast - to no avail. Unable to stand the elephant's agony any longer, he leaves the scene, only to learn later that it took the elephant a further thirty minutes to die, during which time the elephant was butchered alive, and stripped of its meat by the crowd. The incident leaves the narrator with a thorough distaste for any form of hunting and a deep realization of his part in the awful machinery of repression.

[edit] Symbolism

An anti-imperialist essayist, Orwell lets the narrator frequently and clearly state his displeasure with colonial Britain, "I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing... I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British." Enslaved, he adds, "all I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served ... I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind." Reflective, the narrator realizes being forced to impose strict laws and to shoot the elephant -- he states his feelings against the act, but submits after comprehending he "had got to shoot the elephant" -- illustrates an inherent problem of hegemony: "when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys." By enforcing the strict British rule, he is forfeiting his freedom while concurrently oppressing the Burmans. A call to end imperialism, "Shooting an Elephant", ironically, appeals British to cease colonialism to maintain their freedom.

Bernard Crick who wrote a biography of Orwell, George Orwell: A Life, has cast doubt on the idea that Orwell himself actually shot an elephant. No independent account of Orwell's actions have been found and there was no official record of the incident, which was unusual considering the destruction of valuable property (in the essay, Orwell writes, "Alive, the elephant was worth at least a hundred pounds"). Peter Davison, the editor of Orwell's Complete Works, includes an interview with George Stuart, a contemporary of Orwell in Burma who said that Orwell was transferred to Katha as punishment for shooting an elephant. Davison also includes in the complete works a news item from the Rangoon Gazette, 22 March 1926 which describes a Major E.C. Kenny shooting an elephant in similar circumstances.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/h/o/Shooting_an_Elephant_bde8.html"
In other languages