George Orwell Shooting An Elephant

In the story “Shooting an Elephant,” the author George Orwell expresses his experience with imperialism. Orwell was an officer for imperialist Britain; he was an overseer of thousands of Burmese people. Throughout this passage he expresses his feelings toward the British and also the Burmese people. He also shares his opinion on imperialism. The author deals with conflicting feelings of anger toward imperialism but also the native Burmese people. You will come to see that the author sympathizes with both side, but in the end who will Orwell choose.

Orwell also explains the effect of peer pressure, and how it affects people decisions. I will discuss the feelings of confusion, hate, and overall pressure felt by Orwell.

In the story “Shooting an Elephant” the author George Orwell is a police officer in imperialized Burma. He oversees the people and in a way protects them. The Burmese people were not allowed to have weapons, so they relied on the European officers to protect them.

In the passage the author describes feelings of strong hate toward imperialism. He states that he wants to leave Burma as soon as possible. He feels that imperialism is evil, and when working alongside with the government you see the evils of it even more. He feels for the Burmese people and tends to feel bad for them.

But even though he feels this hate towards the British government he has conflicting feelings because he is annoyed by the Burmese people. Though he works for the British government he is even closer to the Burmese people because he patrols the streets.

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In some cases the Burmese people boldly oppose him. For example during games of cricket the referees would not call out fouls put on Orwell. Things like this make him annoyed with the Burmese people. This is where his conflicting feelings come into play. Orwell patrols the streets of Burma and watches over the people. Even though Orwell secretly hated imperialism and wanted it to end, by defau…