A Rhetorical Analysis Of George Orwell's A Hanging
The audience gets a glimpse into the hanging of a Burmese prisoner in George Orwell's personal essay "A Hanging." He employs techniques, such as the use of simile and imagery, which are effective in appealing to the emotions of the reader. By reaching out to the audience in such a way, Orwell is able to press upon them his negative attitude towards capital punishment.
In the beginning of the passage Orwell discusses the cells of the condemned, comparing them to "small animal cages" (99). The prisoners were truly treated as less than human. They were kept in cells ten feet by ten feet "which were quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot for drinking water" (99). Orwell continues to compare the way the Hindu prisoner is handled …show more content…
A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard." (99). Those are the first opening sentences written by Orwell. Throughout the entirety of his personal essay, Orwell uses imagery to project a picture and present the reader with a string of emotions. Often when I read a passage like the one above I find myself closing my eyes, trying to picture the scene in front of me. Sodden, or soaking, rains led me to picture a vision of despair. In this vision there is a slight sense of hope, the yellow light, barely creeping over the high walls of the prison. By bringing in further knowledge of World War II, the Asia-Pacific War, and Burma in the 1930's, I can better understand the world in which this essay is taking place. It was a brutal time period in which imperialist Japan was trying to conquer and colonize parts of Asia. Later in the essay, Orwell describes the gallows themselves, stating that they "stood tall in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison, and overgrown with tall prickly weeds."(101). All of the imagery used by the author helps to portray a negative imagine, one of hopelessness and misery, of isolation and loneliness. Not only are the prisoners treated like animals, but their surrounds surround them with nothing but their own
In the beginning of the passage Orwell discusses the cells of the condemned, comparing them to "small animal cages" (99). The prisoners were truly treated as less than human. They were kept in cells ten feet by ten feet "which were quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot for drinking water" (99). Orwell continues to compare the way the Hindu prisoner is handled …show more content…
A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard." (99). Those are the first opening sentences written by Orwell. Throughout the entirety of his personal essay, Orwell uses imagery to project a picture and present the reader with a string of emotions. Often when I read a passage like the one above I find myself closing my eyes, trying to picture the scene in front of me. Sodden, or soaking, rains led me to picture a vision of despair. In this vision there is a slight sense of hope, the yellow light, barely creeping over the high walls of the prison. By bringing in further knowledge of World War II, the Asia-Pacific War, and Burma in the 1930's, I can better understand the world in which this essay is taking place. It was a brutal time period in which imperialist Japan was trying to conquer and colonize parts of Asia. Later in the essay, Orwell describes the gallows themselves, stating that they "stood tall in a small yard, separate from the main grounds of the prison, and overgrown with tall prickly weeds."(101). All of the imagery used by the author helps to portray a negative imagine, one of hopelessness and misery, of isolation and loneliness. Not only are the prisoners treated like animals, but their surrounds surround them with nothing but their own