Where in his description do you think he reaches "the moment of truth" a term used in bullfighting? Explain.

In George Orwell's "Shooting an Elephant," he reveals just how British he really is.  While he expresses,

I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better....Theoretically--and secretly, of course--I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British.

his behavior at the "moment of truth" is purely that of a British colonial official.  Faced with the decision whether to shoot the elephant that is reported as mad, Orwell narrates that he "did not want to shoot,...[that]it seemed...that it would be murder to shoot him." But, Orwell realizes that the crowd of Burmese would laugh at him if he does not do so.  Orwell's moment of truth is expressed in his line,  "That would never do."  He writes that "there was only one alternative": shoot the elephant. Like the matador, he does his job, following "proper form" and does not walk away from the animal, an act that would make him seem weak and foolish.  However, after he walks from the tragically dying elephant as a symbol of the falling British Empire, Orwell wonders,

whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool.