What does the Elephant Stand for?

Background information : Britain conquered Burma over a period of sixty-two years, during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars took place and incorporated it into its Indian Empire .Burma was administrated as a province of India until 1937 when it became a separate ,self-governing colony. George Orwell wrote the story in 1936, which is a very time for Burmese having great hatred toward Britain. It’s a period of intense anti- European sentiment.

In the story the writer gave us five vivid scenes as follows.

A.     The scene of the writer being jeered by the locals -------It created a pseudo morph that the writer seemed complaining about the local people’s insults towards him .Actually it is a misunderstanding  of writer’s purpose, which only by giving objective facts to reveal he could fully understand people’s sentimental insults on him.. As a suB-divisional police officer of the town, he was an obvious target for Burmese. It shows people’s great hatred on Britain.

B.      The scene of the wretched prisoners ---------He felt an intolerable sense of guilt when the writer depicted the scene. Despite the local people‘s insults on him, he still confirmed that imperialism was an evil thing .It’s a comparison of writer’s attitudes towards Burmese and colonist. “I was all for Burmese and all against imperial power.” That clearly shows the writer’s distinct political stance. Therefore we can understand why the writer was subjected to constant baiting and mocks by local people. Here we can also see the narrator’s dilemma. The different attitudes towards Britain and Burmese aroused our curiosity and provoked us to deliberate on the reason.

C.       The scene of the dead Indian coolie-------It depicted the elephant’s savage damage in the town but meanwhile it revealed the misery of the working people there. An elephant ravaging bazaar is a tiny incident itself, which yet made the writer recognize the real nature of imperialism. The savage elephant can be comparable to the despotic government. Both of them have produced destructive effects to the people here.(similarity 1)

D.     The scene of people’s following when writer ready to shoot the elephant -----The scene impressed me most not only because of its vividness but also the mentality development of two kinds of groups: the Burmese and the writer. At first, the writer didn’t intend to shoot the elephant out of sympathy. But meanwhile the writer was propelled by ever–growing followers towards the elephant .The Burmese felt excited and showed a lot of interest on the writer shooting the elephant. At this time the narrator seems like a leader of an army with a rifle, but he almost had no actual right and freedom. He was just the puppy of imperialism. Eventually he determined to shoot the elephant not as what he said is he wanted to avoid being laughed at by Burmese .The real implication is that he wanted to arouse colonists’ introspection. The dilemma he encountered was to blame themselves .It is the tyrant that destroyed his own freedom. The tyrant initially sent the writer do on the will of imperialism. He seemingly was the leading actor of the piece, but in reality he was nothing but an absurd puppy push to and fro by the will of the locals. By enforcing the strict British rule, he is forfeiting his freedom while currently oppressing the Burmese .A call to end imperialism “shooting an elephant”, ironically, the real intention is that he wanted to appeal to the British to cease colonialism to maintain their “freedom”.

E.      The scene of the dying elephant’s final struggle-----The writer spent much space describing the elephant’s reactions after being shot. The elephant was an old one which owned an unimaginable vitality which was not so easy to be destructed so thoroughly just like the British colonist.(similarity 2) Britain occupied Burma for a long time and had huge power which was not easy for locals to repel thoroughly. Burmese they felt helpless but also had uplift in anti –imperialism during the scenes.

Conclusion: As far as I am concerned, the elephant in the story is the symbol of imperialism .They share many similarities just mentioned above the paragraph. Shooting an elephant virtually is to end imperialism on the will of the Burmese. The writer showed his rage against the evil (empire)-spirited beast (elephant) implied in his writings. The writing style of this story is very much like as the Marrakech. They show the writer’s political stance in an lucid and ironical way by illustrating objective facts. The sympathy on Burmese and great hatred on Britain is a comparison of revealing writer’s stance. Appeal Britain to cease imperialism is to liberate themselves to get freedom ironically.