Shooting an Elephant
Psychology
Pshychology of the narrator
Pshychology of the narrator
Orwell explicitly defines himself in the opening of the piece as being a young police officer who despises the British imperial project in Burma, sides with the Burmese, and yet still feels that he has to prove his authority to the Burmese. As he explains this, he also states that at the time, he was too young to understand this about himself. We thus seem him play out exactly this inner conflict over the course of the story.