George Orwell is a Coward

by Danny Zeff

In Response to “Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell

George Orwell is a coward. Now don't criticize me. I know he was one of the most widely admired English-language essayists of the twentieth century. I know he wrote the two popular books Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. And I know his real name was Eric Arthur Blair. But he is still a coward.

Whether it is s true or not, Orwell claims to have shot an elephant many years ago in 1926. He was a sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein, in Lower Burma, and all the Burmese people hated him because of the bitter anti-European feeling throughout imperial Africa. One time a tamed elephant had escaped from its chains while the owner was out of town, and it ravaged through the town destroying huts, animals, fruit stalls, and even a man. He took a rifle with him to investigate with no intentions of actually shooting the elephant, but the Burmese people thought otherwise; they thought he would kill it. After much hesitation, Orwell finally did shoot and kill the elephant and described it in detail ten years later in his essay "Shooting and Elephant."

Let us paint a better picture here. The British have come and conquered Burma over a period of sixty-two years and incorporate into its Indian Empire. Orwell is the Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police from 1922 to 1927. All of the Burmese, who must hate being controlled by another country far away, despise Orwell, not because of his character but because of his position. When this elephant comes and destroys thing, and the Burmese crowd expects him to shoot it, he realizes that he is trapped by his fear of looking foolish. He concludes he cannot avoid shooting the animal.

It is for this reason that Orwell is a coward. He was simply afraid of looking like an idiot in front of the Burmese. He probably could have told the people that they had misunderstood, but it is obvious he wanted to please them. He also goes on to say that if he has misjudged the animal’s mood, his poor shooting skills would most likely result in his death. So basically it narrowed down to either his death or the elephant’s death. The Burmese people would have been happy either way, but Orwell made the selfish choice to just kill the elephant.

Of course, almost certainly anyone would choose to kill an animal in order to save their own life. But suppose the elephant would not have gotten angry when he approached. Orwell could have taken the risk of approaching and save both their lives, but instead of taking the benefit of the doubt he selfishly shot the elephant. Not only is Orwell a coward he is a selfish coward.

Perhaps I would be more forgiving towards Orwell is he had had some regret afterwards. Perhaps if he had considered his actions a mistake he would seem more human. But at the end of his essay, Orwell does not seem to show any regret for shooting. Although he gives detailed descriptions of his emotions while shooting the elephant, all he says after the school is “I could not stand it any longer and went away” and “legally I had done the right thing.” He also uses the man who had died as a good reason for shooting the elephant. It seems to me Orwell that it was the man’s fault that he had to shoot the elephant, not his own cowardly fault.

Orwell ends his essay “I had done it solely to avoid looking like a fool.” Well guess what, Mr. Eric Arthur Blair? You are a fool to me.