Metaphor

But at that moment I glanced round at the crowd that had followed me. It was an immense crowd… They were watching me as they would watch a conjurer about to perform a trick. They did not like me, but with the magical rifle in my hands I was momentarily worth watching. And suddenly I realized that I should have to shoot the elephant after all. The people expected it of me and I had got to do it; I could feel their two thousand wills pressing me forward, irresistibly. And it was at this moment, as I stood there with the rifle in my hands, that I first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the East. Here was I, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd—seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it...


In this passage Orwell uses a series of metaphors: "seemingly the lead actor," "an absurd puppet," "he wears a mask," "a conjurer about to perform a trick." as well as comparing the colonial official to a "posing dummy." Examine this series of metaphors individually as well as collectively in order to find the overarching metaphor for the entire incident.

• 
  These metaphors are basically telling us that the officers are all actors or acting.. They don't really mean what they say or do.

If Orwell is "seemingly the lead actor," who is the audience? What is the 'part' he is playing?
The people in the audience are the Burmese people. The part Orwell is playing is the oppressor.
If he is "an absurd puppet," then who is the puppeteer? Does Orwell as the puppet, have only one person or group pulling his strings, or is there more than one puppet master?

• The puppeteer that is mainly pulling the strings of Orwell is clearly the British government. He has a number of people pulling his strings because the British Government has many people with many high powers
  

How are the metaphors of the "absurd puppet" and the "posing dummy" similar?

• The absurd puppet and the posing dummy are really alike being that there are people who are controlling both puppets.
  

How does his description of himself seemingly the lead actor make this metaphor similar to the "absurd puppet" of the next phrase?

• He is an absurd puppet because there are people who are controlling him, just like a puppet. He is doing things that he wouldn't often do to the Burmese people.
  

How is Orwell's description of the colonial official as 'wearing a mask' similar to his own part in this situation as the "lead actor"?

• 
  He himself is really wearing a mask when he’s portraying the lead actor. He plays parts, that are or sometimes not true, and he has go to make every part seem believable so therefor he has to wear his own actor’s mask.
  

Each of these metaphors has a theatrical basis. In the following paragraph he even states: "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." What is the 'theater' in which this 'scene' is being 'played'? What is the 'play'?

• The theater is Burma itself. The play that is being played is the shooting of the elephant.
  

How does Orwell use metaphors in order to describe a people and a situation geographically and culturally unfamiliar understandable to his readers?

• He shows many times that everything is just like a play. He is like the lead actor in places and situations that he has know idea why he is in them.