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Post by Mr. Vitale on Jul 7, 2015 16:09:51 GMT
Write your responses to the essay "A Hanging" by responding to this thread.
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Post by Heaven's Kelly on Jul 8, 2015 16:27:19 GMT
While reading A Hanging, by George Orwell, the context enticed me to continue on. It was as if the essay was so much deeper than it appeared to be. The story being told, is actually pretty equivalent to the people in the world today. The essay tells about young men, in prison, who watch as a fellow inmate gets hanged. Once the ceremony is complete, they go back to their everyday life with a feeling of actual relief, because it is now over and they were not a part of it. This relates to the world today by means of emotions, or lack thereof it. Just because they did not go through the pain this man went through, it is just assumed that it should not affect them in the way it did him. The sad truth, is that we go on living our lives suppressing the problems of the world around us, and we do this in order to survive. Although, at one point the narrator expresses his realization of just how wrong the circumstances were. He says, “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” And then continues on to claim that this was “unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide.” Through all of the cold and harshness, there was still a moment of true human emotion of the cruelty being performed. So, in many ways, this essay is more than just a few words on a few pages, but more a story of the way people behave and survive in the everyday world.
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A Hanging
Jul 17, 2015 5:53:02 GMT
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Post by tymartinez88 on Jul 17, 2015 5:53:02 GMT
In "A Hanging" written by George Orwell, a Hindu man is sentenced to be hung at the gallows. The text thoroughly explains and circles around the inhumane action of taking another person's life and bystanders recognizing insignificant things in life. Orwell considers many actions of the victim throughout the poem to be signs that taking helpless peoples lives is wrong and they are just as innocent as anyone else. Orwell starts the text by showing his interpretation of disgust along with his heavy choice of words: sodden, silent, and draped. He uses practical diction to reach out to the reader and hopefully convey that what is happening is appaling. Beside his precise use of language, valuable quotes can be found in the poem that are also a bit tedious to find. Orwell observed and thought, "When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive." This is probably the four most important lines in the poem. I think the thought of seeing a fragile prisoner, thinking in approximately four minutes they will be dead, would be too much to bare and my guilt would sooner or later take over. Orwell does an astonishing job of presenting his feelings that this man is more than a prisoner; he's a human, and he's breathing and functioning just like us. Not only does Orwell use and introduce appropriate language and examples, he also applies things to the overral meaning so that we pertain a deeper understanding of the poem. For example, he describes that a dog interferes with the group of people escorting the victim to the gallows. This dog is important to the plot. Orwell sees the dog as a mirror image of himself as he desperately wanted to defend the victim. The dog allowed a distraction so the audience would suspect that nature or "fate" had something to do with his death. Orwell's central theme is that the life of any man is too precious to be taken away from. The use of the dog and somewhat ironic "rainy day" proposes that hanging people upsets the balance of man and nature.
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Post by heavenskelly on Jul 18, 2015 17:44:41 GMT
While reading A Hanging, by George Orwell, the context enticed me to continue on. It was as if the essay was so much deeper than it appeared to be. The story being told, is actually pretty equivalent to the people in the world today. The essay tells about young men in prison who watch as a fellow inmate gets hanged. Once the ceremony is complete, they go back to their everyday life with a feeling of actual relief, because it is now over and they were not a part of it. This relates to the world today by means of emotions, or lack thereof it. Just because they did not go through the pain this man went through, it is just assumed that it should not affect them in the way it did him. The sad truth, is that we go on living our lives suppressing the problems of the world around us, and we do this in order to survive. So, in many ways, this essay is more than just a few words on a page, but more a story of the way people behave and survive in the everyday world. More or less, this essay reflects the cruelty of the previous decades, where criminals were hanged for the smallest crimes. Although the audience is not told the crimes these men have committed, it is certainly not worth being hanged. Inmates were used as an audience to further humiliate the poor man being prosecuted. There is a reason hanging is not performed in the present day United States. The eighth amendment clearly prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, and as of 1972 hanging was added to the list of unconstitutional capital punishments. 1931, being the year this essay was written, was a time when this cruel and unusual punishment was still considered legal. Therefore, this story allows us to experience, in a way, the daily lives of criminals from the 1930’s. In many ways, this cold and emotionless time period, was almost necessary for the government to finally realize how immoral this all was. Rather than writing solely about a man being hanged, George Orwell composed a piece which included details of the thoughts and actions performed by other characters as well. This allowed the reader to further understand just how normal this experience was to people at the time. It is sad to think this kind of thing occurred at one period of time. On the other hand, it is interesting to read about a time when humans, just like oneself, thought and lived differently. George does an excellent job of portraying the characters and explaining everything that transpired, of course leaving out a few specifics here and there. Furthermore, the question arises as to why he decided to write about this type of incident. Was it a true story, did this happen to him, or was he just writing based upon stories he was told? Getting inside the mind of an author is virtually impossible, but yet if it were to be done, it would be astounding. This essay creates quite an image, and by not explaining everything the human mind would like to know, we cannot help but think about all of the details not told to us.
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A Hanging
Jul 18, 2015 18:13:59 GMT
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Post by Amanda Moustafa on Jul 18, 2015 18:13:59 GMT
"A Hanging" is a dark tale about young men approaching their death sentences. The relevance that it has to the present day world is prominent. As a society, we often forget about the horrible events that take place everyday around us. The narrator of "A Hanging" expresses this common fault by describing in explicit detail the horror of an everyday occurrence that seems to go unnoticed. At one point in the writing a joyous dog sprints up to the poor man on the path to his upcoming fate. The dog wags his tale and licks the mans face, oblivious to what is going on. I believe that this dog was meant to describe humanity, and our blindness towards the evils of the world. We all want to possess the innocence of that wide eyed puppy, and block out the things that keep us up at night. The narrator then went on to reflect on the fact that him and the others went to have a drink while the dead man was a mere "100 yards away." This demonstrates the mindset that we all posess. That once something is over it's done with and their is nothing you can do about it, so you shouldn't let someone else's misfortune ruin your own life. The narrator seemed to deep down have a sense of guiltiness about the fact that he was taking no action to try and right the wrongs that were happening right in front of his eyes. As a whole, most people are cowards and refuse to stand up for something alone. We feel as if we need other people to also fight for what we believe in, and since the narrator didn't see that support, he stayed quiet, just like everyone always does. The narrator notices that the man, about to be brought to his death, can still think about dodging something as minuscule as a puddle. This astonished me because if I was in that situation I don't think that I could even process which way was left and which way was right, let alone move out of the way of water. This goes to show that the mind works in mysterious ways and our mental state does not have to be stable for our physical state to still function. This whole piece shows us that these people on their death march are just as much alive as you and me. Their mind is still thinking, their bodies still functioning, and their emotions are still flowing, but the difference is that they will be gone in mere moments, and we get to keep on living.
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A Hanging
Jul 18, 2015 22:26:21 GMT
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Post by amandamoustafa127 on Jul 18, 2015 22:26:21 GMT
"A Hanging" is a dark tale about young men approaching their death sentences. The relevance that it has to the present day world is prominent. As a society, we often forget about the horrible events that take place everyday around us. The narrator of "A Hanging" expresses this common fault by describing in explicit detail the horror of an everyday occurrence that seems to go unnoticed. At one point in the writing a joyous dog sprints up to the poor man on the path to his upcoming fate. The dog wags his tale and licks the mans face, oblivious to what is going on. I believe that this dog was meant to describe humanity, and our blindness towards the evils of the world. We all want to possess the innocence of that wide eyed puppy, and block out the things that keep us up at night. The narrator then went on to reflect on the fact that him and the others went to have a drink while the dead man was a mere "100 yards away." This demonstrates the mindset that we all posess. That once something is over it's done with and their is nothing you can do about it, so you shouldn't let someone else's misfortune ruin your own life. The narrator seemed to deep down have a sense of guiltiness about the fact that he was taking no action to try and right the wrongs that were happening right in front of his eyes. As a whole, most people are cowards and refuse to stand up for something alone. We feel as if we need other people to also fight for what we believe in, and since the narrator didn't see that support, he stayed quiet, just like everyone always does. The narrator notices that the man, about to be brought to his death, can still think about dodging something as minuscule as a puddle. This astonished me because if I was in that situation I don't think that I could even process which way was left and which way was right, let alone move out of the way of water. This goes to show that the mind works in mysterious ways and our mental state does not have to be stable for our physical state to still function. This whole piece shows us that these people on their death march are just as much alive as you and me. Their mind is still thinking, their bodies still functioning, and their emotions are still flowing, but the difference is that they will be gone in mere moments, and we get to keep on living.
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Post by briannadavids on Jul 20, 2015 0:01:33 GMT
“A Hanging” written by George Orwell is a twisted story about men dragging a prisoner to his death sentence, specifically the thoughts of one of the men who stayed with him until one of his last moments of life. The reader never knows what the prisoner is being hanged for, which makes it a very frustrating situation that causes the reader express sympathy towards the prisoner. The overall theme of the essay is that a human life should not be taken away because it disturbs the course of nature. A dog that comes towards the prisoner only to jump on him, lick his face and wag its tail, is later feared by the sound of the prisoner’s body dropping down to die. The author uses the dog to show the disturbance of peace between nature and humanity to show how murder of another human is a crime that shouldn’t be forgiven. Orwell uses bold figurative language throughout his work to help the reader fully understand what is happening. For example, Orwell says, “It was like men handling a fish that was still alive and may jump back into the water.” He creates pictures in the reader’s mind about how difficult it was just to tame the prisoner from breaking free from their arms and running by comparing it to something that many people would be able to understand the difficulties of. He continues to relate events to day to day things that any person would do such as “as dead as a stone." Moreover, the narrator digs down deep into the readers heart when talking about death. For example, the narrator uses language such as “a tenth of a second to live.” Even though this was a very simple statement, it really opened up my mind to realize that all it takes is less than a second to end a life, and sometimes that life could be ended before it even had the chance to live. To continue his idea about death, he says, "He and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the same world: and in two minutes, with a sudden snap, one of us would be gone- one mind less, one world less.” This made me imagine being out with a group of friends in the same place, and then all of a sudden, one of us could be gone, within a very small amount of time. The narrator creates a bigger picture for the reader, not just for them to realize how a small amount of time it takes for a life to disappear, but how people in this world die all the time and that it could mean so much to one person and nothing to another. George Orwell created an essay that reflects how in society people most often go along with the crowd, rather than standing up for what they believe in. For example, Orwell says, “I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting life short when it is in full tide.” He was afraid to say that what the group of men were about to do to the prisoner was completely wrong. This reflects society today because people are too afraid of saying that they disagree with something. A majority of the time, the expectations of society make it seem that it is not okay to disagree with ideas. We are held to such standards that it is only okay to go along with something if the vast majority are doing it. Society’s standards make most people cowards and not stand up for themselves, which creates a bigger issue that could cause such a oblivious generation that does not think before they act.
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Post by carriestango on Jul 22, 2015 18:12:41 GMT
The essay "A Hanging" written by George Orwell reads of a Hindu prisoner being escorted to his death by six Indian warders. We are not given the name of the prisoner or the crime he committed. The narrator is a fellow inmate who, when the prisoner avoids a puddle, reflects on capital punishment. "It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide. This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive." (5-6, Orwell) This brings to attention an argument: Was this prisoners crime one of a capital offense punishable by death, or a felony punishable by life in prison? This argument is relevant to our world today because there are still disputes over the death penalty or life in prison. Some argue that the death penalty is inhumane, whereas others claim that life in prison is not enough. In "A Hanging" it is clear to identify that the court believed what the prisoner committed was a capital offense and deserved capital punishment: Death. In this essay Orwell writes and argues about how no mans life should be stolen and how it was wrong to be conducting such an inhumane act. He does this by using certain words, details, and imagery to make you feel sympathy toward the prisoner who is going to die; i.e. the dog coming up and licking the prisoners face and later cringing away when the prisoners body is hung. Orwell makes the narrator realize that the death penalty is wrong, and convinces the readers that it is wrong, by expressing how horrific it is to be cutting a life short and bringing to light how you are killing a man who is as alive as you and I. We have to remember that this prisoner was put on the gallows for a reason and deserves capital punishment. Orwell also described the prisoner as a "puny wisp of a man" making him likeable and seem vulnerable and innocent, despite not knowing the crime he committed (which could have been murder). Orwell also writes about a dog running straight for the prisoner and licking him, which could have symbolized the dog seeing a life as a life and because of that, should not be taken. In spite of that, just because a dog is friendly, or saw the prisoner as friendly, does not mean the prisoner was innocent. This book was published in 1931 and eighty four years later the debate over the death penalty or life in prison is still an active contention. Some people insist that the death penalty acts as a disincentive for people and committing crimes as well as and providing closure for the victim and/or their family. On the other hand others claim that life in prison is the same as the death penalty, if not worse, because of the violence they have to endure in the prison and that a death for a death is not the way to resolve the issues at hand. We have to keep in mind the year in which this essay was published as well. In the 1930's capital punishment was considered legal and the way of carrying it out was typically through hanging, whereas today eighteen states have expunged the death penalty. Some people decide if the death penalty should be permitted based on the crime perpetrated, but since Orwell denied us that knowledge it makes us look more towards the actual act of taking another mans life. I believe it comes down to ones opinion on the topic, the crime committed, and their religious views. I personally believe that this man was put to death for a reason and that the author, Orwell, purposely made the prisoner seem more vulnerable and innocent than he actually was.
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Post by alexmarino on Jul 23, 2015 0:24:46 GMT
"A Hanging" by George Orwell is quite he interesting read. The enticing, dark, though not so elaborate name of this story just makes you want to read it. The story talks of a hindu man who is sentenced for hanging in Burma. The man is taken from his cell to his death basically. After he is hung the narrator and others go out for drinks. As a modern day American citizen, I can see the wrongs in this essay and i see two very controversial wrongs.
My initial questions is what did the hindu man do? I ask mainly because assuming that this was a country that did not think highly of hindus, then the man could possibly have committed no crime, he was simply hindu. Race and religion wars are building and now raging in the middle east, and even here at home. Hindus have been persecuted by muslims for years, could this be a muslim country? it's honestly insane, the amount of people in this world, that treat people differently because simply, they don't believe what the others do. That's just insane, that now, over thousands of years of working together and civilizing, we still have wars over what you look like and how you think.
The second topic that comes up, is the ending and shortening of a persons life, Not only are we living everyday, but slowly and surely we are all dying, skin particles falling even, getting a scrape, smoking a cigarette, just standing there even kills you. As dark as it is, it is true. and accepting that, this mans allotted time was morphed by a noose. These people, with their own thinking minds, decided to take a living and breathing person, and in the blink of an eye (if the neck breaks) that person is dead. How messed up is that. Murdering someone in cold blood, 1,2, done. Orwell leaves us with a dark outlook: "The dead man was one hundred yards away" I assume this was to show the narrator was feeling guilt, or to set a dark tone.
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A Hanging
Jul 28, 2015 1:37:31 GMT
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Post by desireetolchin on Jul 28, 2015 1:37:31 GMT
"A Hanging" by George Orwell is one of the essays I chose to do my responses with. This story had a very dark mood, allowing you to see how Orwell felt when seeing one of his fellow inmates lose his life by being hung. To him the prisoners are treated almost as though they are animals, he even relates their cells to animal cages. This whole experience to him just shows how the warders are degrading the prisoners and Orwell is completely disheartened by the way they are treated. However he pays very close attention to his surroundings from the brown mans skin to the puddles around him and he doesn't actually realize how serious the event is until he knows in just a few minutes the prisoner will be killed. Which makes him think that this man is not dying and his body is fine, his nails are still growing, his organs are working, tissues still forming, and his skin is still renewing. To the material of this story this creates a real connection or a perfectly healthy human being is now going to be killed and he doesn't understand why they would do this. I think he wants the reader to not just read what he wrote but truly interpret and think about what he is saying so the reader understands what Orwell actually felt. Orwell never discusses the perpetrator's crime he just adds to the atmosphere of indifference, what they did now doesn't matter, they just need to hurry up with the issue so they can all have breakfast. The main part of this essay is about having obedience and following the rules of the higher authorities. It is not normal to laugh in the wake of killing a man, but as their job, it becomes acceptable. I think the ending of the essay is very powerful, that they can laugh and carry on with their day 20 feet from the swinging body.
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A Hanging
Jul 28, 2015 18:32:45 GMT
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Post by Alyssa Bright on Jul 28, 2015 18:32:45 GMT
A Hanging, by George Orwell, was so extraordinarily detailed that my mind had created a movie of this essay as I read. With out a doubt a gruesome film. It was not just "the hanging" that was greatly detailed, but the events leading up to it. The details of the events leading up to the hanging really put into perspective how wrong and tragic the unnatural death of a hanging truly is. Orwell states, "This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive." Using this statement, Orwell tells his audience that there was no justifiable reason to put a man to his death to rid him of his misery and pain, when there is no misery nor pain in his life. The diction and detail used in "A Hanging", although at times quite simplistic with the diction, proved an enormous point without fail. Do not kill just to kill. A life in prison is punishment enough and makes the prisoner suffer more then killing them all at once.
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A Hanging
Jul 28, 2015 18:34:10 GMT
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Post by Alyssa Bright on Jul 28, 2015 18:34:10 GMT
A Hanging, by George Orwell, was so extraordinarily detailed that my mind had created a movie of this essay as I read. With out a doubt a gruesome film. It was not just "the hanging" that was greatly detailed, but the events leading up to it. The details of the events leading up to the hanging really put into perspective how wrong and tragic the unnatural death of a hanging truly is. Orwell states, "This man was not dying, he was alive just as we are alive." Using this statement, Orwell tells his audience that there was no justifiable reason to put a man to his death to rid him of his misery and pain, when there is no misery nor pain in his life. The diction and detail used in "A Hanging", although at times quite simplistic with the diction, proved an enormous point without fail. Do not kill just to kill. A life in prison is punishment enough and makes the prisoner suffer more then killing them all at once.
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Post by sammycrossley on Jul 28, 2015 19:22:47 GMT
Before reading "A Hanging" by George Orwell, I assumed it was just going to be a series of events that occurred during the time of a man being hung. While reading the essay,I realized that the author portrayed something deeper than just the events. It demonstrated the lack of involvement of involvement people have in a situation, how it is always easier to turn your head the other way, normally for selfish reasons. Orwell states, "We all had a drink together, native and European alike, quite amicably. The dead man was a hundred yards away." This quote states how the people were not phased by this mans death. To the people it was just a relief it wasn't them. When the man began to cry out the people thought, "oh kill him quickly, get it over, stop the abominable noise!" This shows that the people were more annoyed with his cries, not sympathetic because those were to be the last noises he was going to make. This just proves how heartless some people are, the way I read the essay, was that the author was coming from the point of view to demonstrate that life can be a dark thing,and in the end it comes down to only you, if you commit a crime, you pay for it. The people around you are only to be concerned for themselves and your life is your life which is what you make of it.
This essay is extremely relevant to our world today. Not only does it touch on the topic of if the death sentence should be allowed, but it shows punishment by the law. I think that even though then times were different, punishments such as hanging and the electric chair aren't right. Although an awful thought, I would rather that someone has to suffer the consequences of their actions. I agree that you should be punished by the law but I think that it is possible to be done in other ways instead of killing the person. If we punish people for killing others, why would it be right to kill someone and call it justifiable? To take another life is not okay. People were not created to murder other people, they were created to live. I think Orwell really hits on the topic of how killing another person is wrong. His language conveys a feeling of being unsettled, almost disturbed by this hanging. The other men who have to witness this hanging almost try to make jokes to try to avoid the reality of the situation.
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Post by skylartsosie on Jul 29, 2015 4:06:05 GMT
The essay, "A Hanging" by George Orwell describes how delicate a life can be. At one moment a person is lively and the next they are motionless, suspended from time. "There was a clanking noise, and then dead silence. The prisoner had vanished, and the rope was twisting on itself." After the prisoner was hanged, the guards, superintendent, and the rest of the prisoners resumed to what they happened to be doing right before the execution unfolded. They acted like what they all had just watched, was not a big deal. Like it happens every day, or even a part of their lives while living at the prison. The superintendent, more or less, cares the least about each prisoner that gets hanged than the fellow prisoners. I feel, most of the prisoners, are a lot closer with each other and form a bond. This connects them to each other and the prisoners create a family-like structure. "The superintendent of the jail, who was standing apart from the rest of us, moodily prodding the gravel with his stick, raised his head at the sound. He was an army doctor, with a gray toothbrush moustache and a gruff voice." This proves that the superintendent thinks highly of himself by not associating himself with guards or the prisoners. He also is very precautious with himself which makes me believe that he does not like his job and does not rally care for the prisoners or the guards.
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Post by davidc on Jul 29, 2015 19:06:45 GMT
The essay A Hanging, by George Orwell was a very dark and descriptive piece except I couldn't feel bad for the hangman. The reason was the fact that they never told the reader why he was being hung, for all I know the guy could have been a serial killer. Yes, while taking someones life is wrong there is a reason the hangman is in jail and being hung. In the last paragraph it was very unforeseen for the guards to be laughing. "... and burst into a loud chuckling. We all began laughing again. At that moment Francis's anecdote seemed extraordinarily funny." Although I didn't feel for the hangman I do feel like the guards showed some evil they have all just partaken in a gruesome hanging and as shown in the quote they are all laughing moments after the hanging. The guards in A Hanging, are acting amorally at the end of the essay. The narrator showed morals but was eventually lost. This essay ultimately shows how someone would behave in this situation.
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