I believe that he shot the elephant. His essay was published almost a decade after his experiences in Burma took place and it is clear that he has had some time and space to arrange his thoughts since then—like he says, “[he] was young and ill-educated” and had no one to share his thoughts with. I would surmise that many of Orwell’s allusions connecting threads did not necessarily ‘happen’ when the event was happening. I think his story is well done with it far enough in the past that he could see it more clearly than he probably saw it then.
It’s so interesting how he negotiates being a part of the things he hates, namely, imperialism. When he is describing the scene of the elephant ‘must’ he says the people near it had no definite information. “That is invariably the case in the East”. In these words it is clear that at times, Orwell succumbs to the imperial idea that the West holds the key to the right way of doing things.
The quote that really got to me was, “When the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys.” I’m wondering if he really thought that then, in that moment, or if it came to him afterwards.
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