Shooting an elephant

The shooting as theatrical spectacle: In describing the scene in which he shoots the elephant, Orwell says, “The crowd grew very still, and a deep, low, happy sigh, as of people who see the theatre curtain go up at last, breathed from innumerable throats" (34). The hushed crowd and the reference to the drawn curtain is an explicit simile for theatre. Orwell has previously stated that as a colonial policeman, he feels as though he must play a role for the Burmese people. In this passage we see the relationship between performer and audience in action.