Shooting an Elephant

In reading “Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell, I felt a sense of complexity about the emotional turmoil that the officer felt. Trapped by his insecurities, he felt forced to prove his power only through the act of brutal assassination. Yet his attraction to the violent action could easily be understood as justice to avenge the death of the Indian. The convenience of justification, however, didn't settle as an ideal alibi in the officers head. I felt that as a reader, I was experiencing the moral and emotional battle that the officer was going through as if I had been present. The killing of the elephant wasn't so much a personal issue between the officer and the animal but rather between the officer and the idea of himself that he conceived through the pressures and expectations of the native people. This can be better understood by taking into consideration the passage, “Suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it." (Orwell 357) Followed by, "I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy. For it is the condition of this rule that he shall spend his life trying to impress the "natives" and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him." (Orwell 357) The officer knew very well that the animal had deserved to live, but chose to kill it to satisfy the demand of the natives. In my opinion, Orwell did an impressive job presenting a situation in which moral and social expectations and ideals can obscure those of an individual.