The prisoner is portrayed as “a puny wisp of a man” (Paragraph 2) an indication of his frail and malnourished state. This is evidenced throughout the essay, for instance, in the description of the cells, the author stated, “We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages ” (Paragraph 1) The inhumanity towards the inmates is witnessed in the way the Hindu man is handled by the guards. they treated the prisoners more like animals than humans. The main purpose of the author is to make the reader understand the mindset that the superintendent and the prison guards had towards prisoners i.e. This paper provides a literary critique of Orwell’s essay. the superintendent’s insensitivity, the action of the convicts just before the execution, as well as the warden’s actions following the execution. It is vital to note the crucial points within the text that vividly conveys the author’s criticisms e.g. In this essay, Orwell illustrates his disapproval of capital punishment by giving an example of the execution of a Hindu man, of which he was an observer, giving details of the events that occurred before and following the execution. All these emphasize on the deplorable living conditions of the prisoners. In addition, the author stated that the prisoners who were condemned to hanging squatted in the cell’s inner bars. In describing the prisoner’s cells, the author said, ‘‘each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot of drinking water’’ (Paragraph 1). This is evidenced by the opening sentence of the essay which stated, ‘‘A sickly light’’, denoting the poor living standards and health of the prisoners.
It is worthwhile to note the deplorable and inhuman conditions under which the prisoners lived. This book provides the author’s personal account of the social inequities that were taking place under the British rule.
It is crucial to mention that Orwell had been a police officer in the British Imperial Police between 19. The story is set in a prison during the early twentieth century in Burma. The essay was initially published in 1931 in The Adelphi, the British literary magazine. George Orwell’s essay, ‘‘A Hanging’’ is a concise and compelling story giving an account of the author’s condemnation of capital punishment.
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