Shooting an Elephant by George

¶ … Shooting an Elephant by George Orwell. The story is about a European man working as a police officer in Burma who hates his job and the imperialistic attitude of the British who control the area. The man confronts a mad elephant and is forced to shoot it by the momentum of the native people who fear it.

He tells the story in a detached and yet emotional way, which makes the reader question why he is so ambivalent about his duties and yet so emotional in his reaction to imperialistic Britain. Just why is this narrator so ambivalent? The narrator, a bitter man who hates his job, and the people he is supposed to be protecting, is ambivalent about his duties for a number of reasons.

First, he feels the British government that controls the area of Burma is tyrannical and cruel, and that the Burmese should rule themselves. However, he hates the Burmese because they taunt him, and so, he becomes increasingly ambivalent about his job because he feels he is caught between two worlds where he does not belong. Orwell writes, "All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.

His work is not rewarding or fulfilling to him, and so he becomes increasingly disinterested in doing his job, protecting the Burmese, and serving the British Empire. However, this is certainly not the only reason the narrator is so ambivalent about his duties. The narrator also sees himself as without a choice in the matter of shooting the elephant.

He does not want to shoot it, but he knows the crowd behind him will become belligerent if he does not, and they might even "laugh" at him, which seems to be the worst thing that could happen to him in his own eyes. He is ambivalent about his duties, but he has a strong need to be recognized by the people, and not bear their ridicule. Orwell writes, "The crowd would laugh at me.

And my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at" (Orwell). Thus, the narrator is ambivalent about the empire he serves, the people he serves, and his unique duties, but he is not ambivalent about the people's reaction to him. He still has his pride, even if his pride does not trickle down to his work.

He is anything but ambivalent about the reaction he will get from the people, and so, he must shoot the elephant to save face, rather than to "serve and protect." This illustrates his ambivalence to everything but his own reputation in front of the people. However, he discovers he has lost more than just is reputation. Finally, the narrator comes to understand that he has essentially given up his freedom in his support of the tyrannical British government.

Orwell states, "I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys" (Orwell). Thus, the narrator becomes even more ambivalent about his duties because he realizes just what he has lost in protecting his reputation, supporting the empire (at least in front of the people), and supporting their tyrannical government of the Burmese. He has lost his freedom, and his own will, and this would make just about anyone ambivalent.

Without the freedom and will to do what you believe is right, some of the light and life goes out of you, and you become embittered and ambivalent, just as the narrator has become.