A Hanging Orwell
A Hanging
1. George Orwell's writing "A Hanging" provides his firsthand account of the hanging of a Hindu man who represents the last moments of natural life.
a. The significant observation
i. The man, on the way to the gallows, deliberately avoids a puddle in order to insure that his feet do not get wet.
1. Orwell found this to be very interesting ii. The man shows how he is still conscious and a living creature
2. Therefore, Orwell’s theme revolves around the inhuman nature of the extraction of a human life
a. While the man may not care for the unnecessary sidestep he made, this action spoke piercingly to Orwell.
i. View of executed man reverberate in his mind
1. "I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man," ii. Orwell's dialogue mirrors the sickening feeling which came over him during the experience.
1. The opening of the text parallels Orwell's feelings of disgust with his heavy and emotion laden word choice: sodden, sickly, condemned, bare, and silent.
3. Orwell also sharply focuses on the recognition of the insignificant things in life.
a. The admiration for the biological make-up of the convict being hanged
i. Notes how all his bodily functions work as fine as the guards who are going to hang him
b. The carelessness of all of the guards including the individual guard named “Francis” and the superintendent
i. This relations is strongly supported by Orwell’s last quote:
1. “The dead man was a hundred yards away”
a. Signifies how
4. Orwell, in recollecting his experience, does prove to hold a true poetically satirical message to the people
a. He includes the actions of the stray dog (although we as readers can only believe that the dog actually existed) as a doppelganger of himself.
i. Although he seemed to have wished to speak out against the atrocity, being a policeman did not allow him the luxury.
b. The dog, then, allows him the necessary interruption to the action to force readers to consider the crime against
1. George Orwell's writing "A Hanging" provides his firsthand account of the hanging of a Hindu man who represents the last moments of natural life.
a. The significant observation
i. The man, on the way to the gallows, deliberately avoids a puddle in order to insure that his feet do not get wet.
1. Orwell found this to be very interesting ii. The man shows how he is still conscious and a living creature
2. Therefore, Orwell’s theme revolves around the inhuman nature of the extraction of a human life
a. While the man may not care for the unnecessary sidestep he made, this action spoke piercingly to Orwell.
i. View of executed man reverberate in his mind
1. "I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man," ii. Orwell's dialogue mirrors the sickening feeling which came over him during the experience.
1. The opening of the text parallels Orwell's feelings of disgust with his heavy and emotion laden word choice: sodden, sickly, condemned, bare, and silent.
3. Orwell also sharply focuses on the recognition of the insignificant things in life.
a. The admiration for the biological make-up of the convict being hanged
i. Notes how all his bodily functions work as fine as the guards who are going to hang him
b. The carelessness of all of the guards including the individual guard named “Francis” and the superintendent
i. This relations is strongly supported by Orwell’s last quote:
1. “The dead man was a hundred yards away”
a. Signifies how
4. Orwell, in recollecting his experience, does prove to hold a true poetically satirical message to the people
a. He includes the actions of the stray dog (although we as readers can only believe that the dog actually existed) as a doppelganger of himself.
i. Although he seemed to have wished to speak out against the atrocity, being a policeman did not allow him the luxury.
b. The dog, then, allows him the necessary interruption to the action to force readers to consider the crime against