Saturday, April 21, 2007
@10:11 PM
A Hanging
Q1. George Orwell’s “ A Hanging” has been described as a powerful condemnation of capital punishment. What techniques does Orwell use to draw from his readers the desired inference, as his condemnation is delivered indirectly rather than by more explicit means?
Ans: George Orwell used a process of hanging a criminal to show his condemnation of capital punishment. During the process, a dog came out and tried to lick the face of the criminal, shocking the people there. This may be seen that even an animal values the life of a criminal but not us, humans. He also felt that is was wrong to end the life of a human as the person is also as alive as the rest of the people. At the point of the death of the criminal, everybody there felt very uncomfortable and wanted the process to end quickly. This shows that there are still many people who feel the misery of seeing somebody being executed. All these show his condemnation of capital punishment.
Q2. What are some of the arguments for and against capital punishment?
Ans: Capital punishment should be implemented to punish the people who did heinous crimes. It is also to reduce the crime rate and maintain order in the country, as capital punishment will serve as a reminder to people who thought of doing a crime. However, people will argue against capital punishment as no matter what, the criminals are still human beings and it does not give the rights to others to take their lives.
Q3. What are your own views on capital punishment? In what circumstances (if any) can the death penalty be justified?
Ans: Capital punishment can never be taken out of the many ways to punish criminals or the world will have increased crime rates, as criminals know that they would not get the death penalty. But capital punishment should only be limited to serious crimes. I think that capital punishment should only be carried out for cases where someone kills other people. Killing others is totally immoral and the criminal should get the death penalty as a punishment.
