shooting_an_elephant.docVIP

What does the Elephant Stand for? Background information : Britain conquered Burma over a period of sixty-two years, during which three Anglo-Burmese Wars took place and incorporated it into its Indian Empire .Burma was administrated as a province of India until 1937when it became a separate ,self-governing colony. George Orwell wrote the story in 1936, which is a very time for Burmese having great hatred toward Britain. It’s a period of intense anti- European sentiment. In the story the writer gave us five vivid scenes as follows. The scene of the writer being mocked by the locals -------It created a pseudo morph that the writer seemed complaining about the local people’s insults towards him .Actually it is a misunderstanding of writer’s purpose, which only by giving objective facts to reveal he could fully understand people’s sentimental insults on him.. As a sub-divisional police officer of the town, he was an obvious target for Burmese. It shows people’s great hatred on Britain. The scene of the wretched prisoners ---------He felt an intolerable sense of guilt when the writer depicted the scene. Despite the local people‘s insults on him, he still confirmed that imperialism was an evil thing .It’s a comparison of writer’s attitudes towards Burmese and colonist. “I was all for Burmese and all against imperial power.” That clearly shows the writer’s distinct political stance. Therefore we can understand why the writer was subjected to constant baiting and mocks by local people. Here we can also see the narrator’s dilemma. The different attitudes towards Britain and Burmese aroused our curiosity and provoked us to deliberate on the reason. The scene of the dead Indian coolie-------It depicted the elephant’s savage damage in the town but meanwhile it revealed the misery of the working people there. An elephant ravaging bazaar is a tiny incident itself, which yet made the writer recognize the real nature of imperialism. The savage elephant can be comparable to the