The entire short story "Shooting an Elephant" by George Orwell is essentially about moral conflict and conscience, but there are specific parts that highlight this theme more promotional.One key section is when the narrator, a British police officer in colonial Burma,describes his internal struggle regarding the elephant incident. Here's an excerpt that illustrates this moral conflict:
"I was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind.
I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom
that he destroys. He becomes a sort of hollow, posing dummy, the conventionalized
figure of a sahib. For it is the condition of his rule that he shall spend his life in trying
to impress the "natives," and so in every crisis he has got to do what the "natives" expect
of him. He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it. I had got to shoot the elephant."
Here, the narrator grapples with the expectations placed upon him as a symbol of British
authority. He feels compelled to act in a way that he knows is wrong, to shoot the
elephant, due to the pressure from the local crowd and the need to maintain the image
of imperial power. This conflict between his personal moral compass and the demands
