" For this reason, "Shooting an Elephant" is a bold political essay. Colonialism and imperialism were waning trends when the essay was written, but the author understood that the structures of political and economic power put in place by colonial governments were long lasting. From the British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company to British Petroleum, the ravages of colonialism are felt at ever level of every society worldwide.

Poverty and political disenfranchisement cannot in all cases be traced directly to British or European colonialism. However, most cases do reveal some indirect or direct influence of colonialism on prevailing social, economic, and political oppression. Orwell's essay is also about the way colonialism damages not just the societies that are oppressed and ruled over, but the rulers too. He states, for instance, "my whole life, every white man's life in the East, was one long struggle not to...
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