Hatred of imperialism

On the surface the short story “Shooting an Elephant” describes an incident in which the narrator, a British police officer in Burma, is asked to investigate reports of a dangerous elephant. Under pressure from the local crowd he feels forced to shoot it although he doesn’t want to. At a deeper level the story is a criticism of European colonialism.

The policeman, who has the leading part in this story, gives voices to his feelings: “As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters." (p. 70, l. 13-15). This quote emphasizes the fact that imperialism was harmful not only to the colonized people, but also to the colonizers themselves.

The young narrator who is the target of the mockery (“There were several thousands of them in the town and none of them seemed to have anything to do except stand on street corners and jeer at Europeans.” p.70 ll. 5-7) is confused:”I could get nothing into perspective” (p.70 l.19). But he cannot discuss his problems with anyone because the colonial officials were discouraged from questioning imperial ideology: “I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishmen in the East” (p. 70 ll. 20-21). Also, since he feels that his colleagues all support the empire he cannot share his doubts with them “secretly, of course- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British” (p.70 ll. 12-13).

Furthermore the narrator is a sensitive person who feels pity for those who suffer (the native Burmese and the elephant). In comparison with the crowd he seems far more affected by the death of the coolie and the elephant. As regard the killing of the animal, his conscience is not soothed by the knowledge that there was a legal justification for his action. And regarding the general colonial situation, he suffers greatly from being forced to defend a regime which he detests and which makes him act against his own conscience. To sum up, the narrator is a prisoner of imperialist ideology in that he does not seem to basically question the idea of building empires, but limits his criticism to certain aspects of it.