What is Orwell's argument in this essay? How does he make this argument?I am having issues understanding the story in general

Shooting an Elephant, by George
Orwell – the nom de plume of Eric Blair – is a political essay
masquerading as a short story. Set in Burma, now Myanmar, in its final years as a
British colony, it is on one level the first person account of a low-ranking official
compelled to shoot a ‘wild’ elephant. But on a deeper level, it is Orwell’s trenchant
argument against British imperialism. Summoned to simply investigate a rampaging
elephant, the narrator too late realizes that in order to save the appearance of the
British Raj and appease the Burmese mob shadowing him, he will have to shoot the animal.
The hapless elephant, doomed both by the bloodlust of the natives and the helplessness
of the official, symbolizes Orwell’s powerful critique of the futility of the imperial
project in the East.