Analysis of Shooting an Elephant

Shooting an Elephant can be found here.
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Finished 3-5-06

In his essay, Shooting an Elephant, George Orwell demonstrates the futility and true horror of imperialism to his readers, mostly other imperialists. Using metaphor and allegory to support his point, he tells the story of an occasion on which he shot and killed an elephant. He plainly lays out his feelings about imperialism in a straightforward manner, with detailed metaphoric descriptions that support the purpose of his essay.

Orwell precedes the anecdote of his time in Burma with his basic opinion on imperialism, that “. . . [it is] an evil thing.” He then goes on to explain in detail the dirty conditions of those under the rule of British imperialism and his own confusion about his “. . . hatred of the empire [he] serve[s] and [his] rage against [the citizens of Burma].” This sets the scene for Orwell’s launch into his elaborate metaphors.

An anecdote that tells the story of Orwell’s attempt to find and get rid of a rampaging elephant then follows. He talks about the lack of information the Burmese people gave him when he was attempting to find the elephant. Like an outsider’s view of imperialism, “. . . a story always sounds clear enough at a distance, but [becomes vaguer].” This description shows how imperialism can look like a good idea until one sees closer to the source.

After discovering the true source, in Orwell’s example, the elephant, one finds the wake of disaster it has left behind it. Orwell describes the coolie who was killed by the giant creature and it is an obvious metaphor for the first glimpse a person gets when they find out what imperialism is truly like. By going on to detail his reluctance about shooting the elephant, he shows another angle on the futility of imperialism.

Orwell reaches his climax when he tells about the Burmese’s pressure on him to shoot the elephant. There was indeed a “. . . futility of the white man’s dominion in the East.” He describes how every Burmese citizen pressured him to shoot the elephant and how he “[is] only an absurd puppet pushed . . .by the will of [the Burmese].” He says through this that no white man has a place or purpose in the East and least of all when he is inducing imperialism.

The death of the elephant, “. . . powerless to move and yet powerless to die,” further implements the fact that imperialism will accomplish nothing and is only a horrible way to go about doing nothing. The elephant portrays imperialism; after attempting and partially succeeding to wreak havoc (the dead coolie), imperialism finds itself dying due to those it controls (the Burmese indirectly willing Orwell to kill the elephant) and cannot remove itself from its situation, much like the elephant in its dying minutes.

However, the elephant does eventually pass away, and Orwell uses this as yet another allegory. He believes that imperialism will fade and be defeated, though it may take a very long time, another supporting fact to his point that imperialism is useless.

All these examples and allegories eventually lead up to one conclusion: Imperialism is indeed futile. By describing the dead coolie, the non-resistible pressure from the Burmese to shoot the elephant, and the tragically slow death of the elephant, Orwell ties together his thesis and ultimately demonstrates through personal experience and metaphor how imperialism is pointless and wrong.