“Theoretically—and secretly, of course—I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British…”
Orwell explicitly states his allegiance to the Burmese people and his opposition to the power that he himself embodies, as imperial police officer and face of the British Empire. This quote is important because of how clearly it explains Orwell’s feelings for his work and his position in Burma. It encapsulates the inner conflict that will play out when he’s tasked with upholding the integrity of said “oppressors,” and shooting the elephant.
“In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters.”
Here Orwell explains how it is that he comes to despise the British Empire: namely by seeing its tactics and methods of oppressing Burmese society up close, as the one who does the “dirty work.”
“I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East.”
Orwell is here referring to his attitude as a policeman in Burma. While he feels opposed to the British Empire, he is still too young and uneducated to be able to articulate this opposition. Further, in his far flung post in Burma, he’s cut off from critical political discussion and, as he says, he must work out his questions in a state of intellectual isolation.
“All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.”
This is a further explanation of Orwell’s inner conflict. While he may side with the oppressed Burmese people, these people also enrage him. We see here the inherent contradiction of attempting to be a police officer on behalf on an empire that you hate.
“He took not the slightest notice of the crowd’s approach. He was tearing up bunches of grass, beating them against his knees to clean them and stuffing them into his mouth.”
Here we see the elephant in action, the giant, indifferent beast that Orwell is tasked with killing, with his small, virtually useless rifle.
“It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant—it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery—and obviously one ought not to do it if it can possibly be avoided.”
This quote effectively conveys the size, power, complexity and life force of the elephant, and places it in the context of the elephant's usefulness in Burma. One reason why shooting an elephant is a big deal is because the elephant, like a "huge and costly piece of machinery," performs valuable work. This conveys the sense of hubris that he has when he attempts to take this large creature down.
“It was an immense crowd, two thousand at the least and growing every minute.”
The presence of this immense crowd is a vital aspect of the story. The tension and inner conflict of Orwell’s dilemma derive entirely from the presence of this crowd. The crowd represents Burmese society as a whole and as Orwell feels himself performing for this crowd, he feels himself performing for the entire country.
“They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching.”
Here Orwell describes the combination of resent and ridicule that the Burmese feel for him as a representative of the British Empire. He’s only worth watching for them, if he can provide some entertainment or excitement. With the rifle in his hand, there’s potential for that.
“And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man’s dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd—seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.”
The power dynamic of the colonizer-colonized is reversed in this instance as Orwell feels himself, not a puppet of the Empire, so much as a puppet of the crowd. It’s them for whom he must perform. In that way, they are the ones with power. This is what he means when he speaks of the “hollowness” and “futility” of his presence in the east.
“I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.”
Orwell is referring to himself with the gun, performing his authority, when he refers to “turning tyrant.” When this happens, he says, he becomes the puppet of those who he’s performing for. This unique description of the mechanics of power explains the hollowness that he speaks of in the previous quote.
“For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the ‘natives’ and so in every crisis he has got to do what the ‘natives’ expect of him.”
Continuing from the previous quotes, this one elaborates on the condition of tyranny or oppressive power.
“But I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that pre-occupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him.”
Here are Orwell’s sincere, personal feelings in the face of the elephant. The language here reveals the grandeur of the elephant’s existence. We see the elephant in motion, busy, very much alive and “grandmotherly,” language that reveals Orwell’s affection for the creature. Indeed to kill it would feel like murder. This rich quote conveys the depth of feeling and inner instinct, that Orwell must deny and oppose in order perform on behalf of the empire.
“His mouth slobbered. An enormous senility seemed to have settled upon him. One could have imagined him thousands of years old.”
It takes many bullets to bring the elephant down. Here is the result of the first. It as though the bullet has literally aged the creature. There is sadness in this quote, despite the frankness of Orwell’s tone. The slow and complex death of the elephant proceeds from here, as Orwell shoots it again and again, eventually leaving it to bleed out, and leaving the crowd to pillage the body for its meat.
