He hates what he has become and what he does. He confesses that he secretly roots for the Burmese and roots against "their oppressors (335). He admits he is "stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible" (335). He is like those in oppression in that he is not free to do what he actually wants to do. His reputation is on the line and he acts to defend it. A man in his position "mustn't be frightened in front of 'natives'" (339), he writes even though he knows that in order to impress those natives, he must act of line with his conscious. He does the "right thing" (340) according to the law he did also killed the elephant "solely to avoid looking like a fool" (340). Asker asserts that wrapped within the decision to kill or not kill the elephant is the idea that a "tyrannical ruling nation or class loses its freedom in proportion to the power it exercises" (155) and those "who are ruled determine and govern the acts of their oppressors" (155). The narrator realizes the "moral iniquity of British imperialism and sides with the Burmese" (155). In addition, Asker states, "The symbolism allows Orwell to "highlight the contradictions and duplicities imposed on a decent man by an indecent system" (Asker 155). By making the narrator a symbol, Orwell is forcing us to look at not only the narrator's point-of-view but also the internal conflict he feels and the reasons behind why he acts...
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