Analysis Of A Hanging

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Imagine being taken to be hanged, the whirlwind of emotions that one would be feeling. Your entire life flashes before your eyes all while mentally preparing yourself for what is about to happen. You begin to become numb to all your surroundings. In George Orwell’s “A Hanging,” he creates a numbing of emotions through the other characters and the reader, not the person being hung. Orwell creates these emotions through the use of vivid, blunt descriptions. All of the details build up to create the numbing of emotions with the workers unsympathetic front and the speaker’s epiphany. The speaker summons the reader to take a side in this limited case and messes with his emotions as well.
From the beginning of the story, the specific and …show more content…

Orwell when describing the prisoner uses numerous adjectives and details to explain precisely what is going on and what is happening. When describing the guards, Orwell uses more exact and clear words instead of copious details. For example, the verbs used when referring to the guards are blunt “they helped,” “climbed,” and “watched.” When talking about the guard’s work, having less details revealed not only the guard’s numb emotion and the guards hurrying to get the job done. The reader is not revealed of any emotions from the guards while the prisoner is being hung. It is as if it is all business, which to the guards it is. This is their job and what they are required to do. They are hurrying to finish so that they can go joke around with each …show more content…

Orwell uses numerous descriptions to describe the prisoner and the hanging. When describing the prison guards, few details are given showing how they have become numbed to what is going on. The guards fail to see effects of ending a person’s life. The speaker gives a different view of the hanging. He notices how he has become numb to the fact by realizing that this is a real man who is still thinking and processing is about to be killed. These two different responses to the hanging along with the vivid, blunt descriptions messes with the readers emotions and begs for them to answer tough questions. The reader must take a side in the case of the rightness of the death penalty. The reader is provided with limited information about the case in the story, but through the plethora of descriptions the reader is able to make a

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