George Orwell

Shooting An Elephant
Ciera Griffin
INTL 3111
George Orwell
Born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari,
Bengal, India, in 1903.
Son of a British civil servant serving
in India at the time
A year later the family moved back to England
Went to boarding school on partial
scholarship
Noticed that the rich kids were treated better
Joined the India Imperial Police Force
in 1922. Spent five years in Burma
before resigning and returning to
England
 ORWELL and
LITERATURE
First work, Down and Out in Paris and
London, explored the lives of the
working poor and the, living a
transient existence *
Published work under a pseudonym so
his family would not be embarrassed
by him
Burmese Days offered a dark look at
the horrific side of British
colonialism
1941: BBC producer
Later became literary editor for a
socialist newspaper
Most famous for political/social
commentary with his later works
Animal Farm and 1984.
WARNINGS of government
exploitation and overtake
The British and Burma
British troops would burn down
villages and suppress uprising
with mass executions
Ruined Burmas economy and
enviornment
Mangrove forests replaced with
rice paddies
Monopolized oil, teak, and
rubies
Divide and Rule tactices kept
British power afloat
*Anindya Bhattacharyya
Offered assistance from the
Japanese during the Second
World War
Accepted, but realized Japan
was not the masters they
thought they wanted
Japan began to lose the war
January 1948, date for Burmese
Independence!
July 19th, 1947, leader of
Burma Aung Sun gunned down with
his cabinet.
Entire country broke out into
nationalist factions
Shooting an Elephant
Narrative based on Orwells time as a police
officer in Burma, controlled by the British
Burmese people do not like him or British
occupation
One day, an elephant gets loose
Burmese gather around to watch Orwell shoot
the elephant
Orwell contemplates whether or not he should
exercise his power and shoot the elephant
In the end, Orwells imperial side wins and
he shoots the elephant
The Commentary on Imperialism

Orwells narrative is an explicit take on British colonialism. Many of Orwells works

focus on imperialistic styles of the 20th century. Orwell specifically focuses on the
power dynamic between his role as an imperialist police officer and the Burmese
people. While in a position of authority, Orwell has a moral conflict over the
elephant. He knows the elephant no longer poses a threat, but feels as if him,
having a gun means he has to act, and the situation is metonymy for the nature of
the Empire.*

Orwell assumes the imperialist side he mentally fought against.

*Paul Melia
The Commentary on Imperialism
During British occupation, the imperialists treated the native peoples horrifically.
Orwell was reportedly shocked to see how, tyrannical British rule was in South
Asia.* This interfered, morally, with his role as an officer. He was haunted by, an
intolerable sense of guilt and loathed doing the dirty work of the Empire, all of
which is expressed in Shooting An Elephant. * This is not to say he was free from
white supremacy, as he describes his mind at being stuck between, my hatred of
the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to
make my job impossible.*

*Guha, Ranajit
I am not afraid in the ordinary sense. -George Orwell
George Orwell, a shining example being hyper
aware of a life you are perpetrating. You can be
woke, but what does it mean if youre still a
part of the problem?
 Works Cited
Bhattacharyya, Anindya. "Britain's brutal record of
imperialism in Burma." Socialist Worker (Britain). Accessed
June 2017. https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/12862/Britains
brutal record of imperialism in Burma.
"George Orwell." Biography.com. August 11, 2016. Accessed
June 15, 2017.
https://www.biography.com/people/george-orwell-9429833.
Guha, Ranajit. 1997. "Not at Home in Empire." Critical
Inquiry 23, no. 3: 482-493. MLA International Bibliography,
EBSCOhost (accessed June 15, 2017).
Melia, Paul. 2015. "Imperial Orwell." Atlantis: Revista De La
Asociacin Espaola De Estudios Anglo-Norteamericanos 37,
no. 2: 11-25. MLA International Bibliography, EBSCOhost
(accessed June 15, 2017).