The elephant and the British officer help to show the real nature of imperialism. The shooting of the elephant is the incident that reveals that imperialism inflicts damage on both parties in a imperialistic relationship. “I was hated by large number of people… I was sub-divisional police officer of the town, and in an aimless, petty kind of way anti-European feeling was very bitter” (Orwell 1), that is a one example of imperialism that shows whenever a country tries to force their rule on a country, the people will hate them for it.
Human does not like to be controlled, especially by a country that is almost half-way around the world. The country’s citizens will do anything to avoid any rule that is set by a foreign country. They will also humiliate anyone from the ruling foreign country, “If a European woman went through the bazaars alone somebody would probably spit betel juice over her dress” (1).
If any person that is in higher authority than the citizens are, then that person will be their target “As a police officer I was a an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. Imperialism also made the foreign people in the controlled country mad. They had to do the dirty work of the foreign country. In the story where Britain treated horribly, “The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lockups, the cowed faces of the long-term convicts… ” (1).
The Essay on Causes that lead Western European Countries to Imperialism
Topic: The causes that lead Western European countries to favour Imperialism as a foreign policy and the effects this had on Sub-Saharan Africa and/or Asian countries Nationalist movements. (pick either a region or regions as well as a country or countries).NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS AGAINST WESTERN IMPERIALISMImperialism is the policy of a state defending to take economic and political control of an ...
As in the story Britain relied on the Burmese to their dirty work, but in turn the Burmese also relied on Britain for their dirty work, for example to kill the elephant.
As stated before the Burmese people hated the British officer, but now they go to him to get rid of the elephant. They even help him to find the elephant. Imperialism also creates reliance on foreign country. The Burmese did not have any weapons so they relied upon the British for their things, “The Burmese population had no weapons and were quite helpless against it” (2).
The killing of Dravidian coolie and the reaction of the public is also a side effect of Imperialism.
It creates a class of people where one race is higher and better than the other race, “… an elephant was worth more than any damn Coringhee coolie” (6) When the officer went to kill the elephant, the entire population was following him. They did not care about the elephant, but with the officer’s help they will get the meat. The Burmese people expects the British officer to do what they want but not what he wanted to do, “I had no intention of shooting the elephant-I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary… ” (3).
Now the British Officer is being controlled by the Burmese people, “He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib” (4).
Imperialism hurts both the parent country and the country that is being controlled. The dying of the elephant shows, even if a foreign country tries to do whatever it can to change a country, the country will do whatever to resist the change. If it does change it will be a very slow change. Work cited Orwell, George. “Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays”. Sonia Brownell Orwell, 1950.
