Imperialism In George Orwell's 'Shooting An Elephant'

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Recommended: Orwell’s essay holds a place as the definitive anti-colonial piece of literature

In George Orwell 's A Collection of Essays he writes “Shooting an Elephant” and begins by portraying that imperialism/colonialism is an evil thing. I shall begin my paper by evaluating how imperialism creates hatred amongst the English colonizers and the Burman natives through the regulations that the British ruled over them. I shall also analyze how Orwell uses the elephant to portray various aspects of imperialism. I will then explore the elephant from the point of view of the young, uneducated english police officer. I will include what roles he elephant forces upon the young British police officer. In addition, I will show the elephant and the different roles it imposes on the Burman villagers and the curious relationship that develops
The fact that British came and reformed the Burmese to the Western culture and took away their freedom and they are now slaves in their own country. The Burman also began to turn on each other due to the British colonization but they all shared a hatred for the colonizers. Due to the fact that the life of a coolie is worth less than elehant proves that the british really dont carewhat happens to the natives as long as if they comform tot he ways of the british without retaliation. “Because an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee Coolie
He begins to get tired and grows a hatred for his job as a police officer.” As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I perhaps make clear...all I knew was that I 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 (148-149).” Due to him being a puppet sometimes he is forced to do things he doesn’t want to like killing an elephant. The British rule with an iron fist in a way. When colonizing different regions , they tend to strike fear into the burmans and then make their soldiers beat and even kill those who do not obey their rules. Hence, is the reason Orwell shows hatred towards the British

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