The Uncertainty of Power

Power is a rather nebulous thing. Orwell was the one with the gun, the authority. If he had declared that the elephant would not be killed, that’s exactly what would have happened. But the desire to save face, or to command respect, perhaps to be liked, these desires can make it seem as though we have no power, no choice, in any given situation. For example, when called upon to defend a loved one’s honor, it often doesn’t seem that we’re the ones holding the power to choose our actions in that situation. It seems some force is inexorably dragging you towards one path, “power” be damned. Orwell is describing this very phenomena with his elephant story. Colonizers came in thinking they would be like gods, and discovered that they were still men. Men with power, men with guns, yet still governed by the same desires as the rest of us. In the face of those desires, power is revealed to be far less concrete than it is presented in the movies.

Another confounding factor is that power in Orwell’s case lies only in the threat of violence. There are plenty of other forms of power, each with their own strengths and limitations. If he had rapport with the villagers, if they trusted and respected him, he could have avoided killing the elephant. That’s certainly a different sort of power than the kind his gun and uniform represents, but it’s no less authentic.

14 thoughts on “The Uncertainty of Power

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  9. I enjoyed your excellent breakdown of the power structure found within the story. Orwell does make it abundantly clear that the power the British wielded in Burma at the decline of the empire is mostly nominal in nature. However, I don’t think Orwell nor the British ever felt like they were truly on the same level as the Burmese they governed. As you say, the British were the ones with the guns, this alone gives them a power intangible to the Burmese. Intangible power is what makes a god all-powerful in the eyes of men, and Orwell has that unique power in the form of his rifle. It isn’t so much a realization that the British aren’t “gods,” but that simply being a god among men doesn’t automatically result in power over them. Even if a ruling class has access to technology and resources vastly superior to a submissive class, they cannot control the entirety of said submissive class.

  10. Your comment about the mindset colonizers had when they came to Burma–that “they would be like gods”–makes me wonder how the story would have been different had the storyteller been different as well. That is to say, how would the Burma people behaved had the officer in question been someone whose ego and personality was one that could command the situation. Orwell seems rather indecisive in the way he projects himself. On one hand, he hates imperial Britain and sympathizes with the Burmese. On the other, he hates them with all his heart and wishes to execute anyone who would continue harassing him the way they have done. But were it someone that believed in Britain’s imperial right to rule? Were it someone who showed no mercy towards those who took any available opportunity to torment him? I’d be interested to see whether that would have made the Burmese less effective in their influence or if it would galvanize them to rebel even more openly.

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