Shooting an Elephant

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1936

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Essay Analysis

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Themes

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Themes

Imperialism

The British ruled Burma for 124 years. Orwell was British but “was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (148). This difficult position, stuck between who he is on the outside and what he believes on the inside, persists throughout the essay. The narrator cannot help that he was a white man with privilege just as the Burmese cannot help they were, from the British perspective, uneducated and poor. Orwell’s rage over the circumstances frames the essay. Imperialism becomes almost symbolic, however, as the levels of rule and control shift. When the crowd grows to more than 2,000, the native people become quasi-imperialists over the narrator’s conscience.

From Shakespeare’s plays to today’s video games, violence and death have been treated as a spectacle by people of every age. Just as the Romans used the Coliseum for battle and performance, turning killing into entertainment for the masses, the spectacle of death pervades Orwell’s essay. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the elephant’s killing of a man and the subsequent hunting and death of the enormous beast become a mass spectacle. Although readers might like to believe the narrator kills the animal to save the native people’s lives and property, he does so, in fact, under the pressure of the crowd’s delirium. He becomes an “actor” wearing a “mask,” losing his conscience and moral compass. His actions are not his own; he says from the beginning that he did not want to shoot the elephant. Yet, to satisfy the “audience”—that is, the growing crowd—he becomes their puppet. In the end, he wears the mask of both comedy and tragedy, and the imposing British imperial system is turned into mere entertainment for the native people.

Power

The sense of power, the face of power, the act of power, and the repercussions of power pervade the essay like the imperialist system. The narrator must keep up the mask he wears as a British officer, despite the conflict and turmoil under the mask. Despite his internal struggle, he uses his flimsy power in his favor when commanding the natives to fetch weapons and information for him. His mere presence conjures a sense of power even though he is still a foreigner. Being a British officer benefits him, and yet he is barely believable in the role as he is not steadfast in what he must do. The essay suggests that not much is gained by power other than destruction, corruption, and a loss of humanity. The narrator in “Shooting an Elephant” is caught between the power of the British imperial system, the power of his conscience, and the power of the natives whom he supposedly rules.

Guns are often a symbol of power in the essay. Even if power is abused or displaced, the weapon is often the voice of battle. Rifles are a motif used throughout “Shooting an Elephant,” and as the narrator gets closer to the elephant the rifles change. First, he brings a small one meant for intimidation and to demonstrate his control over the scene. Then he asks for a larger one to defend himself. Later, he uses a rifle to kill the elephant.

Worth

What is something worth? The narrator repeatedly questions the value of a life: the natives’, the elephant’s, the crushed coolie’s, and even his own. The elephant destroyed property and killed a man, and yet alive it is worth the equivalent of a “costly piece of machinery” (152). Dead, it is worth the price of nourishment; once it is killed, it is stripped “almost to the bones by afternoon” (155). The native people show respect to the elephant even after it is dead, as those who remove its flesh offer “dahs and baskets” in honor of the nourishment it provides (155). At the end of the essay, the narrator admits he succumbed to the pressure of the crowd to “avoid looking a fool” (156). He loses an element of self-worth when, despite his badge and uniform, he lets himself be manipulated by the people he is meant to rule. Avoiding embarrassment means more to him than standing up for his beliefs.

The elephant is a symbol of value throughout Southeast Asian cultures. Even beyond religious or cultural contexts, the elephant’s size and stature conjure awe and mystery. In “Shooting an Elephant,” the narrator admits fearing it despite the slow, nurturing, “grandmotherly air” of the animal (153). He says he does not mind killing animals when necessary, but the elephant’s large size makes it more difficult. When the narrator shoots the elephant, its size makes for a slow and agonizing death. The majesty often attributed to elephants is in view even as it dies, as the elephant rises once more before passing on its own terms.