Shooting an Elephant Response

354 Words2 Pages
In “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is a foreigner in the midst of British-controlled Burma. While he despises imperialism and is on the side of the Burmese, his experiences with local natives have made it difficult to sympathize with them. As the passage progresses, Orwell is given an assignment to deal with a rampaging elephant. When Orwell arrives on the scene, a citizen has already been killed but he finds the elephant to be calm. Although Orwell brainstorms a logical plan in which he would test the elephant’s aggression prior to shooting it, he is unable to withstand the pressures of the natives who are surrounding him, wishing for the elephant to be put to wrest. While Orwell makes it evident to the reader the lack of power he feels although he is a British officer in a country controlled by Britain, he proves he will take any opportunity possible to gain a sense of power. With the eyes of thousands of natives on him, he is too intimidated to do anything other than what the crowd wants. In hopes of pleasing the demanding crowd, those who he is supposed to hold power over force him into action. By embracing his position of power, he is in turn controlled by the weak. It is not long before Orwell pulls the trigger three times to put the elephant out of its misery. This reflects on all of the three wars between the British oppressors and the Burmese. In the end, the elephant remained down but still managed to stay alive. This is much like the Burmese people who still remain, but with far less strength prior to the wars. This passage goes to show how humans can be influenced so easily. Orwell shows how the influences of Imperialism harm both the powerful and the powerless. While in the beginning, Orwell was a character of higher power, it didn’t take him long to fall into the grasps of the crowd around him. This truly goes to show how human beings will go
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