==George Owell== : "A Hanging"
Qn1: George Orwell's "A Hanging" has been described as a powerful condemation of capital punsihment. What techniques does Orwell use to draw from his readers the desired inference, as his condemation is delivered indirectly rather than by more explicit means?
Ans: In the passage, the author mostly used descriptive techniques to deliver his desired inference.He made us draw sympathy for the man about to be hanged. He zoomed in on his body structure to show that he by no means a person near death, yet he was about to be "destroyed".
He decribed vividly the scene before, during and after the hanging. From solemn, dreading feeling before the hanging, to a more relaxed mood after the hanging.
He also decribed the mood of the people at the scene of the hanging. For example "the indians has gone grey like bad coffee" showing that even the people around the prisoner was frighten.
The author also used a dog to bring out his stand more clearly. He first write that the dog was "wagging its whole body" and was "wild with glee" before the man was hanged. However, after the hanging, the dog was scared after it noticed that the man was dead and it "retreated into a corner" and looked "timorously" at the author and the warders. This change in feelings shown by the dog clearly brings out the mood at the end of a hanging, a mixture of fear and sadness.
The author described the mood of the hanging, letting us be aware of the emotions of the people there and the atmosphere around the gallow, thus making us feel sorry for the hanged man and agreeing with him that capital punishment is cruel.
Qn2: What are some of the arguments for and against capital punishment?
Ans:
For: Capital punishment is no doubt effective way of crime control. Punishment is needed to protect our society by deterring crimes through examples. Thus society
