George Orwell began life as the son of a British official living in India. At a very young age he moved to Britain, where he was enrolled in various schools. Because corporal punishment was permissible, he was often hit and was also beaten for urinating in his sleep. This probably sparked his hatred for authority. Orwell then attended Eton School in Britain, which was known to be one of the most exceptional institutions in all of the Isles. After attending Eton, he returned to India, settling in Burma to serve in the Indian Imperial Police. It was during this time that Orwell penned "Shooting an Elephant" and " A Hanging". His extreme distaste for colonialism/imperialism became apparent when he resigned from his position in Burma and moved to various parts of Europe. Orwell decided to resist against Franco along side the United Workers Marxist Party militia, when he was shot in the throat. He then began to be hunted by Stalinists on his own side. These events certainly solidified his hatred toward communism, authority, fascism, the class system, as well as imperialism. He became an advocate of democratic socialism, where socioeconomic classes are non existent and the people live communally for the benefit of each other. Why have I provided a short biography? Well, because it is essential to understand the events that led to his hatred of authority, whether it be national authority, political authority, or economic authority. Various works by Orwell display his detestation towards authority, but " A Hanging" and "Shooting an Elephant" point directly towards the faulty nature of an imperialistic system. Colonialism, to Orwell is a terrible policy because it forces a nation, whom the ruler does not understand, to live, under a total rule by controlling its economic, militaristic, and political policies.

Almost every literary work by Orwell is about the resistance against authority, whether it be totalitarianism or imperialism. His abusive schooling experiences set the stage for this resistance
and continually throughout his life, his opposing views became ever clearer. In Burma, Orwell clearly demonstrates his views on the humanity of imperialism, or lack thereof. In his essay "Why I Write", Orwell writes, “First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism...The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.” The short stories penned in Burma are clearly against the imperialistic nature of Britain at the time. Britain would conquer and exploit a nation for economic gains, as well as hurling their world power reputation ever higher. Orwell resists against the ideal that the sun never sets on the British Empire with a prevailing attitude that it should.


In "Shooting an Elephant", Orwell writes, "for at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically, and secretly, of course-I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British...In a job like that you see the dirty work of an Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lockup, the grey, cowed faces of the long term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been flogged with bamboo-all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt." Orwell continually employs the imagery of the thousands of naked human beings living in poor bamboo huts to show the exploitation of this country and village by imperialism. The massive elephant had attacked the village and killed a man. At this point, Orwell acquires a rifle and carries it as a means of self defense. However when the Burmese villagers saw the rifle, they followed Orwell in hot pursuit, waiting for the spectacle to arrive. "And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had to do it. I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at that 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... I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the natives"(Orwell). As Orwell fought to impress the natives by shooting the elephant, he was mirroring the British empire trying to impress the world with its imperialistic tyranny. As he states this is a futile effort which ought not be attempted. Also, is the elephant not symbolic of the Indian nation whose slow, torturous death was inevitable? Orwell is representing the British Empire, slowly but surely murdering India, like the elephant which had crumbled down on itself.


In " A Hanging", Orwell is a prison guard and the superintendent is a British man controlling the camp and carrying out the death of the Indian prisoners. These prisoners are routinely being hanged and it's interesting that the British superintendent and Orwell have the ability and duty to preside over the hangings. An obvious parallel can be drawn to the imperialistic nature of Britain at the time and their control over India. Just as the British superintendent had the ability to end another man's life with one word, the British empire had the power to manipulate like a puppet, an entire Indian nation to its every whim. The control of the prisoner's entire life is in direct connection with the domination of India's entire life.

Imperialism is an evil which, according to Orwell, cannot be justified by any means. It dominates nations and cultures for its own gain, while the host nation suffers indescribably. The prisoner dies according to a word from another, "superior" being. The Burmese villagers are immersed in poverty while the British are exploiting all of the Indian people and their resources. The very nature of imperialism is based on the economic gains and the gains in stature.