[s]uddenly i realized that i should have to shoot the elephant after all. the people expected it of me and i had got to do it. . and it was at this moment. 1. that i first grasped the hollowness, the futility of the white man's dominion in the east. here was i, the white man with his gun, standing in front of the unarmed native crowd - seemingly the leading actor of the piece; but in reality i was only an absurd puppet pushed to and fro by the will of those yellow faces behind. which two ideas about colonialism are most clearly expressed in this excerpt? a. colonialism is ethical; colonial rulers must teach their subjects to act correctly and honorably. colonioliomie