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Because "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell is an essay, it contains its own thesis, which is an argument about the nature of Imperialism. This thesis does not appear in just one sentence of the essay, but various passages contain it, with the rest of the essay-the story of shooting the elephant-providing an example to "prove" its truth. The argument about imperialism that is central to "Shooting an Elephant" can be summarized something like this: Imperialism affects the oppressed as well as the oppressor. Because it is an immoral relationship of power, it compels the oppressor to act immorally to keep up appearances that he is right. The narrator realizes that the British Raj which he serves is "an unbreakable tyranny" yet despises the people he oppresses for allowing him to do so. On the one hand he is regarded as a wise ruler, but on the other he knows he is wrong in what he does but must behave in such a way to disquise this. As a result, he finds himself doing whatever he must do, which in this case is to kill the elephant, to "avoid looking [the] fool" that he knows he is for representing the powers of imperialism.

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