George Orwell’s illustrative diction communicates his message that imperialism creates self-hatred through quotes such as “... I was stuck between my hatred of the empire … and my rage against the [Burmese] …” and “... with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching.” I came to learn this message through the informative Socratic seminar that was held on February 2, 2016. Dr.Lemco participated greatly in the seminar and contributed to the learning process quite a bit. Dr.Lemco began working his way to Orwell’s message that imperialism makes everyone hate themselves by first reminding us of the feelings Orwell expresses in the second paragraph of the essay. Orwell hates his job because of the Burmese, “... the evil-spirited little beasts who tr[y] to make [his] job impossible.” At the same time, although Orwell is a British police officer in Burma and, therefore, has a large role in enforcing England’s imperialism there, he is “... all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.” Ironically, this means he is against himself as he is included in the category of…show more content… He reminded us of the scene in which a large crowd of two thousand Burmese marched behind Orwell to watch him kill the elephant. Dr.Lemco then repeated a question he had asked earlier, “Why do the Burmese want to see the elephant die?” After several attempts were made to answer the question, he finally revealed the correct answer. This answer is actually relatively simple: the Burmese hate letting themselves be subjects of imperialism. Obviously they hate the British for imposing it on them, but there is strong self-hatred present as well. This causes them to want to see the elephant shot because it did what they’re too afraid to do: “... it [broke] its chains and escaped” from its captors. The Burmese’s self-hatred for themselves is thus revealed by their desire to see something they want to be
