In Orwell’s account of his experience as a police officer of the British empire in Burma, he uses the experience of shooting a rogue elephant terrorizing the village to highlight the often strange power dynamic between himself, the Burmese people, and the British empire. It is this last pillar of the power dynamic, the English system that has crafted the environment in which both he and the Burmese people reside, that is not explicitly discussed as a participant in Orwell’s account, but nonetheless holds the true power in Orwell’s story. Orwell mentions that “For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better.” (1) While he is in Burma, Orwell is beholden to the British state just as much as the Burmese villagers he presides over, and it is this forced assumption of the role of ruler that pushes Orwell to shoot the elephant in order to not lose face in front of his “subjects.” Orwell himself would rather not be in the position of power that he is in, but his own autonomy is taken away by the empire he represents, just as the empire has taken away the autonomy of the Burmese people. The relationship between Orwell and the villagers is not at all the power dynamic that it seems to be; instead, Orwell is a subject of his empire too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Orwell’s account of his experience as a police officer of the British empire in Burma, he uses the experience of shooting a rogue elephant terrorizing the village to highlight the often strange power dynamic between himself, the Burmese people, … Continue reading