Theme Of Abolitionism In A Hanging By George Orwell

Orwell 's Abolitionist Meaning

George Orwell was the superintendent 's assistant at a prison in Burma, India. Through his work of “A Hanging”, he expresses the inhumanities of capital punishment. The story tells about a prisoner sentenced to death in a Burmese prison and captivates the actions and ideas that changed Orwell. His abolitionist message is driven due to his belief that life shouldn 't be cut short while it is still in full swing. He portrays the wrongness of execution through the actions and words of characters throughout the story, some of them being: the dog, guards, superintendent, Francis, and others. The prisoner 's crime is unknown to the reader throughout the story. Orwell does this to exemplify the idea that no matter

His use of comparison and word placement were very carefully thought out. Through imagery and detail he allowed the reader to experience his feelings for themselves. The mood of the story is immediately set in the first two sentences. Orwell describes the beginning of the day as, “a sodden morning… sickly light, like yellow tinfoil.” The morning 's setting has no correlation to the hanging, but Orwell mentions it for its depressed feeling; However, the sadness it portrays supports an appeal for his argument. When showing the prisoner 's living conditions he compares the cells to that of a zoo cage. Hinting to the fact that the prisoners are no longer treated as humans. Orwell uses many of these techniques and styles throughout his credentials and literary works. Two of them being Animal Farm and 1984. When arguing capital punishments three main categories come to attention. The moral and ethical argument, the sociopolitical argument, and the economical and logistical argument. Orwell uses the moral and ethical arguments to make his point. Through manipulation of emotions he uses his very descriptive and vivid vocabulary to persuade the reader into conceiving an idea. An example of this is found when Orwell writes, “This man was not dying, he was alive just as we were alive.”(Orwell 101). From the ethical stand point Orwell explains the nonsensical violence of capital