The elephant death scene in Shooting an Elephant is most likely a metaphor for the ineffectiveness of imperialism.
The imperialists carried out a poor governance of a colonized country and this scene may be a metaphor for the imperialists' misguided understanding of how their own system works.
"Shooting an Elephant" is an essay by English writer George Orwell. The essay illustrates the experience of the English narrator, perhaps Orwell himself, called upon to shoot an aggressive elephant while working as a police officer in Burma.