I wasn’t sure if I had to include an explanation for each one of them but here are 4 ironies like you requested!
1. "I had no intention of shooting the elephant – I had merely sent for the rifle to defend myself if necessary – and it is always unnerving to have a crowd following you."
- This quote is ironic because the author claims he had no intention of shooting the elephant, yet he sent for a rifle to defend himself. The crowd following him also suggests that he was not in control of the situation.
2. "I often wondered whether any of the others grasped that I had done it solely to avoid looking a fool."
- This quote is ironic because the author shoots the elephant to avoid looking like a fool, yet he ends up making a spectacle of himself in front of the crowd.
3. "As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear."
- This quote is ironic because the author hates his job as a colonial police officer, yet he is tasked with enforcing the policies of the British Empire in Burma.
4. "I did not want to shoot the elephant. I watched him beating his bunch of grass against his knees, with that preoccupied grandmotherly air that elephants have. It seemed to me that it would be murder to shoot him."
- This quote is ironic because the author does not want to shoot the elephant, yet he ultimately decides to do so because he feels compelled to maintain his authority as a colonial police officer.