Shooting An Elephant By George Orwell

In the essay “Shooting an Elephant” George Orwell is conveying the message that imperialism within a society creates an imbalance in power amongst individuals, where Orwell came to realize that he was not on the top of the heap but a tool to oppress the Burmese people. Orwell employs the use of metaphors to enforce his message. When Orwell states, “conjurer about to perform a trick”. This way of looking at Orwell is contrary to the way that white Europeans would be looked at in ordinarily. In this metaphor the roles of the oppressor and the oppressed are switched so that Orwell becomes the product of British oppression.
Orwell later enforces this message when he says, “Here was I, the white man with gun, standing in front of the unwarned native