A Hanging George Orwell Analysis

George Orwell orchestrates his essay, “A Hanging”, with the intent to evoke a feeling of animosity from readers towards capital punishment. His detached point of view, depicting the animal like treatment the prisoners endure, yet never revealing the reason for their captivity, allows readers to focus on the justice of the punishment instead of the abomination of the crime.
It’s not who the author is, it’s who the author isn’t. By having a detached point of view, Orwell is able to establish his credibility with his readers while being an effective narrator with his descriptions. Because he is not the criminal on trial, Orwell is automatically granted ethos among his readers and by posing himself as an objective member he is able to voice his opinion without much scrutiny. He is able to say, “I never realized what it means to destroy a healthy,
Everyone experiences the negative emotions when someone is compared to that experience. Orwell plays off of this well-understood concept and exaggerates it to cause a greater impact upon the readers and influence their pathos, which, as a result, would manipulate their judgement. The details of the conditions the people were subjected to are of no consequence to Orwell’s opposition of capital punishment, they aren’t facts that add or detract, but they do help to influence the reader’s reactions. By comparing humans to an animal in a derogatory manner, it causes a feeling of indignation to come about. In phrases such as,“it was like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water” or “think of all the pain and trouble you are causing us...He was very troublesome”, Orwell deliberately manipulates these emotions knowing the disbelief readers will experience and uses it to fuel his argument against capital punishment. Orwell’s play on human indignation strengthens his pathos and enhances his narrative against what he perceives as the ultimate