Imperialism II.

Orwell writes on page 1, paragraph 3:
One day something happened which in a round-about way was enlightening. It was a tiny incident in itself, but it gave me a better glimpse than I had had before of the real nature of imperialism-the real motives for which despotic governments act."

What is the incident and what is the insight?

The incident is when he, the narrator, is standing in the middle of a crowd who wants him to kill the elephant and he has to make a desicion about whether or not to give into the peoples want of a showy death. He feels the overwhelming pressure to do as they want. The insight he takes from the situation is that when one becomes a tyrant, they give up their desire to rule the people for the good of the nation because of the overflow of praise they get from doing as the people want, and grow to fit a new mold that the people find more pleaseing yet the people will never be happy with this arrangment because what they want won't always be what they need.

The incident is that a elephant has escaped and ruined some houses and even killed people. The narrator is asked to do something about it. The insight is that once you forget about your morals and decide to try and impress the public, you lose all integrity.

The incident is that an elephant has escaped and is becoming very dangerous for people to handle. He is charged with taking care of the elephant because the owner is too far away to do anything about it.

The incident is the narrator deciding whether or not the runaway, destructive elephant needs to, or should be, shot. The narrator feels pressure to shoot the elephant from the huge crowd of Burmans who have followed him However, the narrator feels that the elephant is no longer dangerous and that there is no need for it to be shot. However, the narrator does shoot the elephant because he does not want to lose face in front of the Burmans. He realizes that he committed himself to shooting it ever since he ordered for an elephant rifle. He is already disliked by the Burman people and he does not want that to worsen, or for himself to be laughed at. He says, "My whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to be laughed at." He realizes that in the same way, imperial governments become slaves to the will of the people the try to conquer. The conquering government does not want to appear weak so they make decisions that please the conquered peoples, the same way that the narrator has to shoot the elephant because if he doesn't the Burmans will lose all respect for him. This is ironic because, in trying to appear powerful, the narrator and imperial governments lose all power and become swayed by the people they are trying to control.

The incident is that the elephant has gotten loose and is recking things and killing people. The insight is when the narrator is thinking about killing the elephant that could easily live and not hurt anyone, or to kill the elephant and save his own humiliation.

the incedent is his decision to shoot the elephant, and the insight is that he doesn't have the real power, because he had to do what the people expect to look good and stay in power.

The incident is that an enraged elephant destroys some peoples property and kills a man and the narrator is called to take action upon the elephant. He shoots the elephant five times and when it doesn't die quickly, he understands that all he did was act upon what the majority of the people wanted him to do so that he could gain respect and power with the people. The insight that he has is that he is no better than the Imperialist for which he works and strives to differ from and hates. He realizes that the imperialist nation he works for acts on what the majority of the people want and not necessarily what is right so that they may gain power and respect from the majority.

It was when he was waiting to decide if he should shoot the elephant and do what the people wanted, or if he should do what he thought was right. He learns that Imperialism isnt always what the people want which makes them unhappy. But it can still be the right thing to do

the incident he is talking about is when he is debating wheather to shoot the elephant or not. even tho his judgement says no, he will shoot the animal because acting to impress others is in human nature

The incident that occurs is that the narrarator finds himself shooting and killing an elephant. The insight into this is that he sort of finds himself in a tyrant or dictator's position. A little ironic since most dictators seem to have a lot of control, but in reality they have no control and have to cave into the pressure of doing things that people are expecting.

The insident spoken of here is the shooting of the elephant and the people around it. the insite given is the same comparison of what the elephant represented, being used for its reasorces and goods. this shows the narator what the empire is really doing around the world.

The incedent is the shooting of the elephant, and the insite is how in an imperiallistic society the rulers are still pupets to those that they "control"

The incedent was when he shot the elephant because he knew that the "yellow faces" behind him wanted him to, i think that this is a case of pure peer-pressure and it was totally immuture of his to shoot the poor thing althoughhe knew he didn't want to.
In shooting the elephant he found that he understood imperialism by seeing howthe locals were there for dinner and a show. The irony here is that the people represent England and the elephant represents Burma eventhough in reality England is taking away from Burma