What are the motifs in Shooting an Elephant?

The crowd is a motif in this story. The large crowd appears and reappears in the story pressing over Orwell as he reluctantly faces the elephant and prepares to shoot it. As a motif, the crowd reflects the eyes of Burmese society, closely observing their colonizers, waiting for a wrong move. The crowd doesn't reflect a physical threat, however, so much as the threat of delegitimization and humiliation.