10. Shooting an Elephant

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In this story,there is an elephant ravaging the bazaar and fears "natives". Because natives had no weapon to stop this elephant they expect the police to kill it. This elephant also kills an Indian black coolie. After that, English public waits excitedly to see the dead body of the elephant. They want it in order to have a bit fun and for it's meat. Police doesn't want to shoot the elephant but there are expectations from him(he has to impress natives not to loose the domination of white man image). He even doesn't like to be served to this jonb and he is against to imperialism. But no matter what he thinks, he shoots the elephant! SO, WHAT? Here, the police is not an individual anymore he is the puppet of people. Elephant dies in half an hour:( After the death of the elephant, the owner of it gets angry but he is only an Indian. So, it doesn't make any sense. At the end, there are two ideas: 1) An elephant is more valuable than an Indian collie. 2) Police is right to kill the elephant, because it threaten human life.

This is the story:)

Here are some quotations which tells us about racism:
*"Whites man's domination in East"
*"When the white man turns tyrants it is his own freedom that he destroys."
*"my whole life, every white man's life in East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at!-(the obsession in being the superior & this idea let them become a puppet instead of an individual!- what a pitty!
*A white man mustn't be frightened in front of natives -(be the courageous and stay as the superior!)



PS: * there is also a word called "sahib", I don't the exact meaning but I think it is the same in Turkish - sahip(the owner) so it refers to European colonial in India.