Орвеллдің «Фильді ату» эссесі: Империализм, Бурма және қайшылықтар

Orwell spent some of his life in Burma in a position akin to that of the narrator, but the degree to which his account is autobiographical is disputed, with no conclusive evidence to prove it to be fact or fiction. After his death in 1950, the essay was republished several times, including in Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays (1950), Inside the Whale and Other Essays (1957), and Selected Writings (1958). In a 2022 interview, Orwell's son Richard Blair said he thinks Shooting an Elephant is one of the two best essays of his father, together with A Hanging.

The British Empire gradually annexed Burma over a period of 63 years (1823–1886) during which three Anglo Burmese Wars took place, and Britain incorporated it into British India. It was administered as a province of India until 1937, when it became a separate, self governing colony, attaining its independence on January 4, 1948. With a strong interest in the lives of the working class, Orwell, born in India to a middle class family but brought up in Britain, held the post of assistant superintendent in the British Indian Imperial Police in Burma from 1922 to 1927. "Moulmein used to be full of elephants" employed to haul logs in the timber firms. "Ordinary tamed elephants have been part of Burmese life for centuries, the rare and revered white elephant, is believed in Buddhist legend to be a symbol of purity and power". When Orwell moved to Moulmein, in 1926, "he was most probably ambivalent about the colonial state of which he was a part. The Kipling inspired romance of the Raj had been worn thin by the daily realities of his job in which he witnessed 'the dirty work of Empire at close quarters'". Orwell clearly states his displeasure with the British Empire: "I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British". By enforcing British colonial rule, he is both forfeiting his freedom and oppressing the Burmese.

The narrator's situation throughout the essay is one of little prospect or prominence. He comments on how even though he is a member of the ruling class, he finds himself either largely ignored by the Burmese people or hated. He remarks in the first sentence, "I was hated by large numbers of people—the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me". Only with the expectation of a killing do the locals find him "momentarily worth watching". He describes how, as a police officer, he was often a target for mockery from the locals, as was any other European who provided an easy target. Orwell recalled he faced hostility from the Burmese, "in the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves". He recalled that "I was 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". In contrast to his description of the natives as "little beasts", the narrator labels the elephant as a "great beast" and suggests that he holds it at a higher status than the locals. That is somewhat paradoxical, however, as the narrator's own job is demeaning and forces him to see "the dirty work of the Empire at close quarters". The narrator singles out "young Buddhist priests" to be "the worst of all" and comments on how he would gladly "drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts". Having killed the elephant, the narrator considers how he was glad that it killed the "coolie", as that gave him full legal backing. The essay finishes with him wondering if they will even understand his motive for having killed the elephant, as he merely wishes to salvage his pride.

The narrator's conscience plagues him greatly as he finds himself trapped between the "hatred of the empire [he] served" and his "rage against the evil spirited little beasts who tried to make [his] job impossible".

In 2015, Shooting an Elephant was adapted into a short film by director Juan Pablo Rothie and Academy Award nominated writer Alec Sokolow. The film was shot entirely on location in Nepal starring Barry Sloane as Eric Blair.

The degree to which the story is fiction has been disputed. In his biography of Orwell, George Orwell: A Life, Bernard Crick cast doubt on the idea that Orwell himself actually shot an elephant. No independent account of Orwell's actions has been found, and there was no official record of the incident, which was unusual because of the destruction of valuable property. Peter Davison, the editor of Orwell's Complete Works, includes an interview with George Stuart, a contemporary of Orwell in Burma, who said that Orwell was transferred to Kathar as punishment for shooting an elephant. "An elephant was considered a valuable asset to any timber firm and Orwell would have been severely reprimanded for such unnecessary slaughter. It was not long after the incident that he was transferred from Moulmein to a quiet post in Upper Burma called Katha". Davison also includes in the complete works a news item from the Rangoon Gazette, March 22, 1926, which describes a Major E. C. Kenny shooting an elephant in similar circumstances. When one biographer questioned Orwell's wife, Sonia Brownell, she replied, "Of course he shot a f king a [sic] elephant. He said he did. Why do you always doubt his word!"