George Owell Imperialism

September 17, 2014
English 105
Composition I MWF
Owell begins the story with the discontent the police officer has with his job and India with its oppressors, keeping the conflict in the mind of the readers early on and constant. The narrator draws back on his memories which haunt him of when he had to make a choice and chose his pride. Owell often writes about imperialism, in no shape or form hiding his distaste for it and often poking fun at it, such in 1984 and Animal Farm. He was born in India and moved to
England for schooling and then joining the imperial army after becoming unhappy with British treatment of the native Burmese, he left the police service. This often influences his writings, drawing back on his personal first
He shoots it anyways.
His honesty towards his situation gained my trust and had me decide that he was a reliable narrator. He was brutal on both sides of the spectrum, talking of the nonsense that both countries have, and he spared no details on death the elephant caused “lying on his belly with arms crucified and head sharply twisted to the side.” and untimely the elephants “very slowly and in great agony" death. The only question I have with him is wither he really blames the
British and Burmese for his struggle rather than confront himself and see if maybe this could be inside his head, he seems to place all his judgment on them and see them as the reason of his anger not just a side effect of it. It makes me wonder if things where as bad as he made them or not. His description of the elephant changes from the first time he mentions it to point when it dies. The elephant no longer becomes just that, and animal, but more of a choice that effects the rest of his life. The elephant becomes all the things he sees wrong with Great Britain and also all the things he loves about it. He reflects his inner conflict onto the situation. He does not want
In his mind he also sees that but he also acknowledges that the elephant is the

biggest source of work, it does the heavy farm work and without it there would be more work for the people. Exactly like Great Britain. Like the elephant, the empire is powerful. When the elephant raids the bazaar, he symbolizes the British Empire raiding the economy of Burma
That’s not the only symbol he uses, he also uses the Burmese as a symbol of people losing themselves for power, “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. “
In the end he wants these peoples respect, honestly he just wants anybody’s respect, and he wants to look needed and tough. He makes the mistake of not thinking it through or seeking advice from his fellow policemen or even a merchant or anyone that was following him. He puts this misbelieved amount of pressure on himself to shoot it, he honestly could have just let it