In his personal essay, “Shooting an Elephant,” the author and narrator, George Orwell, serves as an officer of the British government stationed in Burma during the age of British imperialism. The story primarily focuses on how he is compelled to shoot an elephant against his conscience. This act functions as a larger metaphor for the destructive power of imperialism. Ultimately, this story reveals how social pressure can influence people to commit unethical acts out of self-preservation.

Although George Orwell hates British imperialism, as an officer of the British government, he is forced to defend it. He believes imperialism is “evil;” however, it is his responsibility to enforce the continued captivity of “wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages” many of whom had been maimed from being flogged. Even though he may want to help the prisoners, he is “too young and ill-educated” to do anything about it. He’s also scared to rebel because he would not only lose his job, but could also face legal consequences. The social pressure of the British government makes him suppress his feelings of frustration, and instead, pushes him into participating in the oppression of the Burmese people. This tension caused him to hate his job. His hatred for his job was further complicated because the Burmese people made his life miserable. Orwell laments at how “the sneering yellow faces of young men that met [him] everywhere, the insults hooted after [him] …got badly on [his] nerves.” Because the Burmese people could not take out their hatred on the British government due to self- preservation, they took out their hatred in subtle ways upon Orwell, not knowing that he too hates imperialism. This shows how both sides were impacted by the social forces of imperialism into doing unethical things.

Within the context of defending imperialism, Orwell was later pushed by the Burmese crowd to shoot an elephant. An elephant had gone “must” and killed a “coolie.” After being informed that he had to take action, he got his gun and went in search for the elephant. After finding the elephant, Orwell saw it now looking seemingly peaceful, playing with grass and looking “grandmotherly.” He thinks it is “murder to shoot” the elephant, but when he feels the "two thousand wills” of the Burmese expecting him to kill the elephant, he knows he has to shoot. ‘Bang!” He decides to kill the elephant because he doesn’t want the Burmese people to view him as a coward. This is a particularly potent fear because the Burmese people hated him due to his role as a representative of the oppressive force that had colonized their land. He understood that if he showed weakness in this moment, the Burmese people could feel more emboldened to torment him even further. When he looked back to it, all he thought about was if “others grasped that [he] had done it solely to avoid looking a fool”. Even though he knew it wasn’t right to shoot the elephant, he did it anyways to not look weak and foolish.
When George Orwell felt pressure to shoot the elephant, he did. He didn’t do it because he thought it was the right thing to do, he was just trying to protect his image. As a result, although he now lives with the regret of shooting the elephant, his image wasn’t ruined and people were indeed satisfied. Furthermore, this act of killing the elephant serves as a symbol for the larger forces at play that push innocent people to do cruel things like defend imperialism and torment officers with good consciences. When people are watched by many, they might find themselves doing unethical things to satisfy others and remain safe.