Your question refers to the final paragraph, which comes
after Orwell has shot the elephant, and which tells us the way that the other colonial
officers greeted the news of what happened. Let us just remind ourselves of what the
text says at this point in the novel:
Among the Europeans, opinion was divided. The
older men said I was right, the younger men said it was a damn shame to shoot an
elephant for killing a coolie, because an elephant was worth more than any damn
Coringhee coolie. And afterward I was very glad that the coolie had been killed; it put
me legally in the right and it gave me a sufficient pretext for shooting the
elephant.
If we look at this
quote carefully, we can infer that the division of opinions is related to the age of the
colonial staff that give their opinion. It is perhaps the older men who are more able to
grasp the bigger issue that is at stake with their experience. They perhaps know, even
better than Orwell does, the way that it is important to maintain the illusion of power
and provide a spectacle for the "natives," even though, as Orwell eloquently
establishes, that power is actually ironically based on a kind of slavery. The younger
men think only of profit and economic motives, which places the life of an elephant as
being worth more than a "coolie." Clearly, their opinion is related to their lack of
experience and knowledge concerning colonialism and the narrow, profit-based motive that
is at the heart of so much colonial enterprise.
Personally,
I think the older men are right, as their opinion shows their experience and their
appreciation of the kind of situation a white man finds himself in when he takes power
over others. The younger men's view shows their lack of experience and their narrow,
restricted view of the situation.
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