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George Orwell A Hanging Analysis

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By examining George Orwell’s short story A Hanging, one can see the image of the condemned prisoner avoiding the puddle, and the dog jumping up to lick the prisoner’s face illustrate the importance of each individual life. Initially, the image of the condemned man stepping aside the avoid a modest puddle was nothing out of the ordinary, until it hit one of the guards with the realization that they were killing one man’s entire world. Everyone tries to just get through the work day without even realizing what you are doing may be wrong. In the narrator 's cause he is just walking the prisoner to the gallows to be hung like usual with two burly men on each side, when the prisoner steps aside to avoid a puddle. This is a typical move for most people, …show more content…

This shows everyone walking down to the gallows is healthy and has their whole world ahead of them, but all the guards are going to destroy one of those worlds, and they countenance it since it is their job. The narrator knows how wrong it is to hang this man, and the fact that every life is important, yet he remains silent on the subject, continuing on the prisoner’s death trip to the gallows. The image of the prisoner avoiding the puddle clearly exposes the guards as knowing the fault in hanging these men, although they continue, regardless of the obvious truth that every life is important. Furthermore, the image of the dog running up and licking the face of the prisoner illustrates that all lives matter as the dog does not care what these men are doing, he is just happy to spot a group of humans together. The dog came out of nowhere, licking the prisoner’s face and prancing around the group wagging his tail with glee. Everyone was taken aback with the sudden interruption and had no clue how to react, similarly to how no guards know how to react to the idea that every life is valuable and they are about to take one. The dog does not judge the crowd and is not timorous for what they are about to do, or the prisoner for what he has done to get in this situation, instead he celebrates with them for being there. The dog is loyal to the humans and sticks by their side on

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