Shooting an Elephant

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itself showing the destructive power of imperialism: the elephant’s rampaging spree destroying homes, food shelves, and even killing a man whom Orwell described to have an expression of unendurable agony. Upon finally finding the elephant, Orwell says “I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him.”(Orwell, Page 854) But when he lays eyes at the huge mass of people behind him he changes his stance to “…but I did not want to shoot the elephant.” (Orwell, Page 855) Orwell then repeatedly states how guilty it is to shoot the elephant. Despite the some reasons to not shoot the elephant such as how it is worth more alive rather than dead, or how he is a “poor shot,” (Orwell, Page 855) he ultimately falls into the expectations of the Burma people. Against his will and moral belief he decides to kill the elephant. Orwell uses the death of the elephant as another metaphor of British Imperialism in Burma. On a side-note, Burma was a free kingdom until British expansion came ...

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