hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves"(2). Orwell takes the ridicule of the townspeople very personally. This is significant because it suggests that crowd's mirth is the source of his humility. The narrative reveals that in the impending contact with the placid elephant, the possibility of jeering from onlookers convinces Orwell to destroy the animal. Orwell states, "For at that moment, with the crowd watching me, I was not afraid in the ordinary sense, as I would have been if I had been alone. A white man mustn't be frightened in front of "natives"; and so, in general, he isn't frightened. The sole thought in my mind was that if anything went wrong those two thousand Burmans would see me pursued, caught, trampled on and reduced to a grinning corpse And if that happened it was quite probable that some of them would laugh. That would never do"(6). The duality of suggesting that humility and insecurity is the combined single attribute leading to the death of the animal is very problematic since the crowd's pressure of humility is a subtle principal conflict that added immensely to Orwell's decision. .
The encumbrance of the crowd establishes a relationship between Orwell's humility and his decision to kill the elephant. Ultimately, the mass ridicule will result in an elephant's untimely death. Morally, Orwell objects to the killing of the elephant, yet he is driven by his insecurity of humiliation perpetuated by the townspeople of Burma. The two thousand strong group of locals following Orwell, advocates the killing of the elephant, both verbally and symbolically "They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant. They had not shown much interest in the elephant when he was merely ravaging their homes, but it was different now that he was going to be shot. It was a bit of fun to them besides they wanted the meat"(5).