Shooting The Elephant Character Analysis

The protagonist of the short story is a “young and ill-educated” (Orwell: 49) “sub-divisional police officer” (Orwell: 48) in Burma who understand the evilness of the imperial system and therefore is “all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors” (Orwell: 49). Contradictory to that, the narrator hates the Burmese due to them constantly “bait[ing]” (Orwell: 48) him whenever possible. So overall, he is an intelligent man. As a result of this, the job he has to execute has a “bitter[ness]” (Orwell: 49) for him and he doesn’t feel any satisfaction coming from it. He rather feels “an intolerable sense of guilt” as he feels a responsibility for the sufferings that the Burmese have to endure under the reign of the British Empire which he serves and therefore is a morally intact person. Now going on to refer to moral respects, the repetitive decision not to shoot the elephant (cf. Orwell: 51) makes the reader aware of the narrators’ intellect and ability of moral consideration. Firstly, he only “watch[es] [the

The “chained up” (Orwell: 50) animal represents the “White Man’s Burden” (cf. Kipling: 1) which is a term for the loads that white oppressors have to bear when being in the colonies and having to satisfy the demands of the local people. Thus, when considering that the elephant represents the British Empire, the chained up animal bears testimony that the British officials in colonies have to act according to the local population’s will as it is also the finding of the protagonist. So after all, the system of imperialism is damaging for both parties of an imperialistic