Imperialism, an evil thing

The present quote is an extract of the story “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell (Eric Blair), who tells us of his own feelings and experiences as a British official in Burma, that was part of the British Empire in these times.

The occurrence in the story is a problem with an actually tamed elephant that has been out of control, but has already calmed down, when Eric Blair, the officer, arrives. That’s why he really does not want to shoot him. However, he feels forced to do it by the “two thousand wills” (p.74) of the native crowd behind him. So despite of being the superior white, he submits to those wills and shoots the elephant.

But the aim and the deeper sense of this story are to criticize colonialism and the British’s demeanor towards the natives by emphasizing the bad effect it has on the colonized people but also on the colonizers, that is to say the British, themselves.

The statement of the author: "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.” shows his personal deprecatory attitude towards the Empire’s actions. The “dirty work” is the suppression, exploitation and the very bad treatment of the native population. As a police officer he can see the bad living conditions of the natives and especially the fear and misery of the prisoners (“the wretched prisoners”, “cowed faces” (p.70)). And because of being a representative of this system, the British Raj, he really feels guilty and even commiserates with the native people, on the one hand.
But on the other hand, these people are just one more reason for hating his job. In their eyes he is the enemy, viz. the British intruder and superior oppressor. That’s why they don’t miss any opportunity to ridicule and humiliate him: “As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so.” (p. 69).
Undoubtedly, imperialism is an “evil thing” (p.70) for Blair, but of course he cannot express his criticism publically.

In conclusion I would like to say, that it must have been very hard for people, who felt the way, Eric Blair did, since they must have had the feeling of being all alone. Being not proud of the Empire, they could neither identify themselves with it, nor were they allowed to cooperate with the natives. And finally, they still had to preserve the mask of the superior white oppressors, even if in reality they felt, as if they were ruled by the natives.