“And 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; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly.” - This was the problem the police officer in The British Imperial Police had ended up in, in the town of Moulmein, in Lower Burma. Should he shoot the elephant or not? The essay Shooting an Elephant is written by the English writer and journalist, who was known as the most admired English-language essayist of the 20th century, George Orwell. The text was published in 1939. The essay is about a police officer and how he had to shoot an elephant, in spite of the fact that it was against his will. He shot the elephant, so he wouldn’t be mocked by the "yellow faces" of Burmans.
The story takes place in Moulmein, Burma during the British rule there. There is no mention of when the episode takes place however, it’s conceivable that it takes place the 1920’s, because in those years the author, George Orwell was a police officer in Burma. The main episode in the story takes place over the course of a single day. Because he worked for The British Imperial Police, he was forced to enforce some laws even though he was against them. A white man in the East has no power. He was forced to shoot the Elephant and had no other option: “I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East.”
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