The essay “A Hanging” by George Orwell explores the central idea of people just being useless observers to life. The title tells us exactly what the plot is, which is the hanging of a prisoner, but more than that the essay is about seeing the human and the value of life and how this hanging is taking that away. While those are the ideas written in the essay I interpreted the words and writing style to reflect on the idea of people just being observers of life and just watching things happen (like a hanging) and not always doing the right thing.
Orwell has chosen specific words to descried the events and the diction used really creates a mental image that stimulates all our senses. He talks about the gallows as “a brick erection” “overgrown with tall prickly weeds.” This sensory description for me conjured a very clear images of these gallows way off in the middle of no where up in the hills of the Burma countryside. Orwell talks uses a slimily to describe how the prisoner was treated “It was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water.” Diction and imagery are used to paint clear mental images that become the set for a philosophical realization.
The voice of the essay was a home run for me, the voice really depicts exactly what the essay is trying to communicate. The voice of the poem is I think Orwell and while he is the narrator and is in the story he is not the star. Orwell follows along the pack of people going to the hanging and describes to the reader no only the events that are happening but his interpretation. At one point that prisoner is waling to the gallows and “[stepped] slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path.” The narrator of the story offers the reader what he thinks of this simple move “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 analogy happens in his head, and it is at this point that we learn the he knows what is happening is wrong but still he does not do anything about it. The voice of the essay really reveals to the reader the meaning of the essay which is that people are just useless observers.
Personally I really like the theme of this essay, I think that there is a lot of truth to it. Almost everyday we as people are faced with challenging situations where we know that something is wrong (maybe bullying, breaking the law, being disrespectful…) and hardly ever are we good enough to do something about it and just watch it happen. Orwell has obviously picked up on this human emotion and has drawn our attention to it. Something that I thought was unique about this essay is that the central idea was presented really obviously, unlike most literature where the author has berried the idea deep with metaphors and fancy language Orwell has very clearly presented the idea making it hard to miss even with just a single read through. I figure that by putting the idea so front and center Orwell really wants people to be aware of this characteristic.
Overall this essay is really well written and clearly communicates its central idea of people just being useless observers very effectively through descriptive language and an ironic voice.
