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Isobel Perez

Ms. Lee

8th Grade English

October 30, 2017

Colonial Effects on Mental Stability

Colonialism deprives you of your self-esteem and to get it back you have to fight to

redress the balance. This quote, delivered by Imran Khan, who was a Pakistani politician,

conveys the idea that both Orwell and Thiongo examine in their short stories Shooting an

Elephant and Minute of Glory.Shooting an Elephant is a short story that portrays one of the

experiences that the narrator had while in Burma. While the narrator is in Burma he is forced to

choose between following his own principles or upholding his image of authority. In Minutes of

Glory we meet Beatrice who is a young woman that lives in Limuru and works in different bars.

She is constantly moving from bar to bar in order to make more money and to try and get some

attention. Beatrice has low self-esteem, often comparing herself to the other bar girls, and trying

to change herself to fit the norm.George Orwell and Nugugi wa Thiongo, the authors of

Shooting an Elephant and Minutes of Glory, portray the negative psychological effect of

colonialism on the people of Africa by using character development, conflict, and irony in their

short stories.

Through the use of character development, Thiongo demonstrates how colonialism can

cause the colonized to have low self-esteem and to think that a different race or ethnicity is better

than theirs. In the beginning of Minutes of Glory, we meet Beatrice who is a bartender at some
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of the bars in Limuru before she travels to Ilmorog in order to get attention from some of the

other men at the bars. From the start of the story we could tell that Beatrice had low self-esteem

by the way she compared herself to the other girls who worked at the bar and because of how she

was always wondering if she should change herself in order to fit the norm. Thiongo writes,

Her name was Wanjiru. But she liked better her Christian one, Beatrice. It sounded more pure

and beautiful (Thiongo 1). This quote shows that even though there is nothing wrong with her

original name, she still feels like she should use her Christian name because in colonial Limuru,

the Europeans where the colonizers so they were considered the best and the prettiest. This

made everyone want to be just like them so, often girls would use Ambi products and wear wigs

in order to look European. Also, Beatrice herself once tried to change how she looked because

she wanted to be noticed and loved but she thought that no one would love her unless she looked

like the blond, pale European women. They talked heatedly against Ambi, Butone, Firesnow,

Moonsnow, wigs, straightened hair; but they always went for a girl with an Ambi-lightened skin

and head covered with a wig made in imitation of European or Indian hair (Thiongo 3). The

quote proves that colonial mentality was very strong in this story and that most people seemed to

believe that the Europeans were better than themselves. Lastly, in the end of the story Beatrice

just snaps, steals money, and buys new clothing for herself because shes tired of trying too

hard and she decides to take Nyaguthiis advice. She went to a mirror and looked at her new

self He tried to engage her in conversation. But she ate in silence Then suddenly she left her

unfinished food and her untouched drink and walked out. She felt good (Thiongo 12 and 13).

The quote describes Beatrice changing herself, finally getting noticed by a man, and her leaving

him by himself. That shows how much Beatrice has changed herself in order to seem pretty
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and to get noticed.The previous quotes prove that Beatrices character development was an effect

of colonialisms negative psychological effect on her. Colonialism was saying that if you want to

be pretty then you have to be pale and have European or Indian hair so Beatrice changed herself

to fit in. Colonialism also caused people to think that they werent good enough, smart enough,

or pretty enough because they werent like their colonizer.The idea of colonial mentality also

spread like wildfire throughout the colonized country and everyone seemed to believe in it very

strongly.

Orwell shows how colonialism can cause you to second guess yourself and to break your

own morals by using conflict in his short story, Shooting an Elephant.When Shooting an

Elephant first opens up we meet the narrator of the story who is a European officer in Burma

that is not well liked by the natives of Burma due to his position of authority and because of the

role he plays with the colonizers. We also learn that the narrator himself doesnt really like the

idea of colonization and imperialism and that he would side with the natives if he had to. Orwell

writes, For at the time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and

the sooner I chucked my job and got out the better. Theoretically - and secretly, of course - I was

all for the Burmese (Orwell 1). From this quote we can gather that the narrator secretly hates

his job and would much rather be doing something else. Also, we can see the self vs. self conflict

in this quote because of how he is forcing himself to do something he doesnt like. After we meet

the narrator we are introduced to the external conflict of the story, the raging elephant. Actually,

we learned that the elephant wasnt really wild, but instead was going through a stage of must.

We also learn that the narrator is called upon to take care of the elephant but all the narrator
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really wants to do is scare the elephant away, not to kill it. It seemed to me that it would be

murder to shoot him. At that age I wasn't squeamish about killing animals, but I never shot an

elephant and never wanted to (Orwell 3). This show that the narrator never really wanted to

shoot the elephant but he felt like he had to because of his authority position in Burma and how it

ties into the colonialism of Burma.The quotes from Shooting an Elephant we can see man vs.

self conflict because of how the narrator doesn't want to shoot the elephant but is forcing himself

to shoot the elephant. He goes against his own principles to follow the principles of the European

government, and all the government wanted to do was colonize Burma, they didn't care about the

Burmans or the animals in Burma.There is also a bit of man vs. man conflict caused by

colonialism and we can see it when the Burmans fight with the Europeans. The evidence that

was just presented proves that the negative psychological effect of colonialism caused the

Burmans to hate other people and it caused the narrator to doubt himself.

Thiongo and Orwell use irony to portray how colonialism can cause the colonizers and

the colonized to realize certain things about their life that they had never realized before. In the

beginning of Minutes of Glory Beatrice is self-conscious and has very low self-esteem due to

the colonial mentality in Limuru and how everyone buys into it. However, nearing the end of the

story Beatrice goes and speaks to Nyaguthii, who seems to not really care about what people

think, and after their talk, Beatrice walks out seeing things in a new way. This leads to Beatrice

stealing money from a man and going to buy herself a new outfit to match her new attitude.

Afterwards she goes back to the bar so she can show off her new self and she ends up getting

her moment of glory. A D.K. Men wanted to dance with her. She ignored them, but enjoyed
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their flutter around her (Thiongo 13). The irony of this part of the story is that after Beatrice

gets her Minute of Glory, it is stolen from her shortly afterwards by the man with the five-ton

lorry. However, Beatrice realized that colonial mentality didnt really matter to her anymore and

that she had to stop being so self-conscious. Also, in the beginning of Shooting an Elephant we

can see that the narrator disagrees with colonialism and imperialism but he still works in a

position of authority for the British empire. Shortly afterwards, the narrator is called upon to

shoot an elephant that had gone crazy but he doesnt really want to. It is in this short moment that

he realizes that in reality he is not the authority here but rather a puppet. Seemingly the leading

actor of the piece; but in reality I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of

yellow faces behind (Orwell 3). The irony of the quote, which is how he is presumably the

authority figure here but he is still getting pushed forward by the Burmans, shows the

narrator's realization that colonialism causes both the colonizer and the colonized to lose their

freedom.The previously mentioned quotes show how colonialism caused the characters to grasp

new concepts about their lives and about colonialism. These new concepts led them to realizing

that colonialism was just holding them back and that colonialism and imperialism were both

aimless. The irony of this, is that these realizations occurred near the end of the story so we

werent really able to see how it affected their lives.

Through the use of character development, conflict, and irony Orwell and Thiongo are

able to portray the internal struggles that people face when colonialism is taking place. From the

stories we can see that colonialism causes people to change who they are and to have low

self-esteem because others are considered superior to them and that the people can begin to think
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badly about themselves. Also, colonialism causes people to doubt themselves and to change their

own thoughts because they begin to think that they have to do one thing or another. The

problems that Orwell and Thiongo write about still go on today in our civilization. Thiongo

writes about a girl who is very insecure and changes herself to become beautiful. Today there

are still girls who compare themselves to people in magazines and change who they are to try fit

into a mold that society has made. Also, Orwell writes about a man who changes his thoughts

and this is like how children are peer-pressured into doing certain things that they dont want to

do. Colonialism causes people to break their morals, change who they are in order to fit in, feel

insecure, and can cause them to realize things about themselves. The two short stories show a

character with an internal struggle and whether that struggle is insecurity or choosing to follow

your morals, we can see that colonialism affects everyone psychologically.