“Shooting an Elephant” is one of the most important essays in English literature. It was written by George Orwell in 1931. The author of the story was a British colonial police officer in Burma, Myanmar, at the time the narrative was inspired by his own experiences. The author talked about what he himself had to endure while working here, especially after the event of shooting an elephant in front of the Burman people. Meanwhile, he did not want to do it. Since then, the author has also learned about the difficulties of the colonial experience, as well as how imperialism influences human morals by applying the author’s experiences and feelings, symbols, and a realistic first-person point of view.
One of the negative effects of imperialism, at the beginning of the essay, is the author's helplessness and alienation from the local people. The author and the Europeans who live here have many times suffered a lot of alienation and disrespect from the Burmese. In the essay, the author mentioned, “ When a nimble
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It played one of the important elements because it can allow the readers to know more about the real and conflicted point of view of a British police officer living in Burman. At the very end of the story, Orwell spoke out his complicated thoughts, “And afterwards I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the elephant. I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.” (Orwell, 1936) He wondered if he made the right decision when he decided to kill the elephant or if he just did it because he did not want to get more hate. The author's inner conflict can be seen in these words, which also reflect how the author's position of power has perverted his sense of right and wrong. Orwell used the first point of view effectively to deliver the messages