Shooting An Elephant Literary Analysis

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“Shooting an Elephant” is filled with examples of corrupted power. Colonialism nearly always involves a small minority of outsiders holding an excessive amount of influence over a larger group of local peoples. This imbalance of power in colonialism seems counterintuitive, and Orwell literalizes the imbalance by showing his ability to kill the elephant singlehandedly. But even this distribution of power is not clear-cut: Orwell and the British colonists do not in fact have absolute power over their colonial subjects. As the story continues, it becomes clear that the British’s status as colonists has rendered them powerless: Orwell is irked by subtle insubordination from the Burmese, and, moreover, feels obligated to “spend his life in trying
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