A_Hanging

A Hanging A Hanging by George Orwell is a harsh, wake up call as to how cold and blind the human race can be. This story takes place in Burma, India in the 1940’s. Orwell is a warder for a prison in Burma and he tells about his one experience as he prepares and puts a prisoner to death. They all gathered around him, six warders, and walked the prisoner out of his cell and towards the gallows. The prisoner went calmly but was very afraid – for his life is coming to an end in a mere 2 minutes and there is nothing he can do to change that. As the prisoner makes his way to the gallows, Orwell watches the him as he walks and notices that he came upon a puddle and steps aside to avoid getting his feet dirty, even though he is about to be put to death. Orwell starts to realize that the prisoner is a human being with feelings and thoughts, who is about to be cut short of his life. As they were walking to the gallows, into the yard comes this dog. Wild and happy to see so many people together, he went round the prisoner, dog, warders, gallows, way, superintendent, out, man, death, towards, put, over, orwell, men, made, hanging, dead, body, yard, two, sir, said, ram, one, minutes, life, last, even, eight, drink, began, around, after,