A Hanging By George Orwell Essay

George Orwell’s essay “A Hanging” narrates his stance against capital punishment through his experience in a common hanging. The essay takes place in 20th century colonial Burma, where Gorge Orwell leads a Hindu prisoner to his execution. Engaging narrative emphasizes the contrast of different characters before and after the killing. When the prisoner side steps a puddle, Orwell reaches an epiphany, and delivers an appeal to pathos to prove his message: capital punishment is wrong. George Orwell’s beguiling narrative style and sharp contrast highlight his appeal to pathos and proves the unequivocal immorality of capital punishment.

Higher Question – Choose an essay or a piece of journalism which has made an impact on you because of its effective style.

George Orwell, an experienced Assistant Superintendent in the British Imperial Police, composed “A Hanging” after his resignation in 1927. The narrative is a personal testimony set in the 1920’s in Burma. Orwell uses the classical techniques of formal argument to depict the death of an unknown prisoner, while taking a position against the death penalty. George Orwell’s Abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, dog, functionaries, and their actions, words, and body language.

“A Hanging”, composed by George Orwell, is a personal testimony set in the 1920’s in Burma. The narrative depicts the death of an unknown prisoner and the role of those who enforce the death sentence. Through the process of the execution, Orwell illustrates the effects of capital punishment on the executioners and the executed in an attempt to convey an Abolitionist message. While stated only once in his story, Orwell takes an emphatic position against capital punishment. The author does not use the classic argumentative style; instead, he uses implications of his characters to present the four main points against capital punishment. George Orwell’s Abolitionist message in “A Hanging” is conveyed through the prisoner, dog, functionaries, and their actions, words, and body language.

The essay “A Hanging” by George Orwell speaks to the reader about the author’s stance on capital punishment. I believe that Orwell was able to communicate his point, without actually saying I’m against capital punishment, through three steps. The first step is to set the mood and bring you into his perspective. From the dreary description of the morning to the slow procession of the condemned man to the gallows, Orwell puts the reader in a mood that conveys the experience of watching a man die. The second step is to compare himself to the condemned man, showing how we are all equal. A life is a life, whether you are a condemned man or not. The third step is to show how everyone tries to cope with the aftermath of the execution. This

George Orwell is one of the most renowned writers of the twentieth century. Orwell’s essays portray different issues connected with colonial expansion. Colonialism refers to the rule of one nation over a group of people in a geographically distant land. George Orwell became a writer in 1927 and it is in his essays that he first expresses his beliefs about colonialism. In his essays”Shooting an Elephant”,

In Jim’s case, the subject of “excitement and prejudice in the public mind” is greatly emphasized; a large amount of hype surrounded the trial, which consequently may have altered the decision made by the courts. During this time, executions were still part of a public spectacle. Stemming back to European and colonial society, executions, especially hangings, were a large form of public entertainment that brought the whole community together. In one perspective the execution may have created a hole in society, but with the development of executions as communal spectacles, the hole is mended, and instead brings the community together in a sense through the removal of a “bad” in their society. Jim’s case comes during a time in which there was a large amount of fear surrounding slave revolts- with Jim his act of violence likely sparked a sense of fear throughout his community. By deciding to sentence Jim to hanging, this would act to reassure the community with a sense of safety to enforce the superiority of the “better”

Every writer has that one special quirk that keeps readers coming back for more. Whether it is the humor or the characters, most authors carry their quirks from story to story. In “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell describes his experience of shooting an elephant. In “A Hanging,” he describes the emotions that run through him as he watches the hanging of a prisoner. Both essays have similar key ideas that identify Orwell as a writer. The results of pride and power contribute to the themes that connect his essays and identify Orwell as a descriptive writer.

Ever since the 20th century, poverty exists in various of well developed countries, many individuals live under no shelter and suffer starvation. Although having a job can support their basics of living, working many hours also affect their health both mentally and physically. George Orwell, the author of the novel, Down and Out in Paris and London, describes how homelessness and poor working conditions can affect an individual by starving for a long period of time, having no shelter, and working in harsh environment. Orwell illustrates a journey about a person who lives in poverty in both contemporary countries, Paris and London in the 1930s. Where in Paris, he graphically describes the poor working experiences as a plongeur, a lowest position behind the kitchen of a high class French hotel, Hotel X. The narrator encounters many frustrations in handling money causing him to suffer from starvation in Paris. As in London, Orwell acutely narrates the life as a tramp, which looking for a place everyday becomes an issue for an individual because of the vagrancy law in England. Due to the absurd law of England, it makes the narrator even more difficult to live out of poverty in the novel. Orwell describes the life of a well educated individual who has to live under poverty due to the minimum amount of opportunities in Paris and London in 1930’s.

Killing does not come naturally to people. For someone kills an individual they know that person is either a child, sibling, parent, lover, or friend, just like themselves. This person is supposed to live another day to experience the sun in their face, and hear the laughs of their family. But in a few seconds a killer could take all of that away from them, as if all those days lived were meaningless. This is when the killer’s conscious mind comes in, and they begin to feel guilt. To avoid this pestering feeling, coping mechanisms are created. The idea of coping mechanism - strategies to deal with internal distresses and fault, was displayed in both, “A Hanging” by George Orwell and “The lottery” by Shirley Jackson. In “A Hanging” a prisoner

Two of Orwell’s first literary works were his essays regarding his experiences as a policeman in Burma during imperialization from Europe. These essays include “A Hanging” and “Shooting an Elephant.” In these essays, he shows his clear disagreement of oppression, even while working for the oppressors. Orwell writes

I believe he speaks of the puddle to show that the prisoner was a healthy, conscious man. This essay illustrates how immense of a thing it is to kill a human. How in a couple of minutes, with an abrupt snap, the prisoner would be gone - there would be one one less mind. You can see this in a couple of passages in the essay. You see it in Orwell's thought of the idea of taking another human's life. He discusses how foreign and wrong it is that the prisoner, could be walking along, and two minutes later, would be dead. He speaks of the wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.

     Capital punishment in the essays by George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and Norman Mailer was a necessary evil to deter crime. These authors incorporated the use of alcohol or drugs as mind-altering chemicals to relieve the pressures of the characters involved in death due to capital punishment. Chemicals such as drugs and alcohol can be used for the pleasure of relieving stress, a means to forget, or a way to subdue personal beliefs as the authors have illustrated.

George Orwell once said, “freedom is the right to tell people what they do not want to hear”, that, essentially, “speaking the truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act”. (“George Orwell”) Orwell’s words reveal his political views in the absolute truest form. His uninhibited writing style forced readers to not only to listen what he had to say, but to also recognize his writing as the truth. Although his veracity was supposed to be accepted without question, Orwell defined oppressive ideas of the government by exposing elements such as class division, and the failed attempts of the middle class to establish a meaningful union with the working class. Through his symbolic storytelling in

Can a hero still be a hero although he succumbs to his weakness? What if he becomes the very thing he was against or want to eradicate? In our modern world, we find many examples of heroes in stories, movies, and even the news that usually have a positive connotation related to them, and many of their story arcs usually have a positive resolution, similar to the classic romantic stories long ago. The author George Orwell completely flips the notion of the classic hero on its head, but does it well enough that it makes us question what is a true hero.