



2016-12-14 来源: 51Due教员组 类别: 更多范文



“A Hanging" is a very classic article of George Orwell. In 1921, George Orwell joined the British colonial police in Burma to serve for five years. As a British officer, he could observe trial, flogging, imprisonment, and hanged prisoners closely. This experience made him observed the cruelty of human carefully. After that he produced a reflection to the western colonialism policy. And he had a further understanding of totalitarianism. His experience in Burma made him realize the evil of colonialism, and thus left the colonial police force after that. In 1931 he published "A Hanging "."A Hanging "told a story about an Indian prisoner who was hanging by the warders. It showed how indifferent and cruelty the colonists were. This paper will analyze George Orwell’s “a hanging” from the scene that left the most impressive impression to me. That is the scene that people’s reaction after the prisoner subjected to execution. George Orwell used the insightful and sharp languages to reflect the miserable life of underprivileged people and how colonialism affected the mind of the colonized.

It can be seen from the article that George Orwell used nine paragraphs to describe the reaction of warders and superintendent after the Indian prisoner was dead. The article described a scene that everybody did not care about the hanging happened just now. The superintendent used a stick to touch the body of that Indian prisoner to check if he was still alive. This description showed us his indifferent. After that, George Orwell wrote that the superintendent blew out a deep breath. It seemed to him the hanging was just a task for him. He did not care about prisoners’ life. Similarly, the description that “the moody look had gone out of his face quite suddenly” (Para.16, Line.3) showed he had no patience for prisoners. He treated them as nothing. Vocabulary and the topic of the article are linked closely. Different topics need to use different words. George Orwell used “quite suddenly” (Para.16, Line.3) here to make readers have a better understanding of his indifferent. The words of the superintendent that “Well, that's all for this morning, thank God” showed his indifference and cruelty. He was just a representative of people who were deeply affected by the cruel colonialism.

Besides, the scene also showed that the warders unloaded the bayonet and marched off. The dog was also awake, feeling identity about its behavior and following the warders. Under the supervision of the prison officers who with batons; the prisoners were taking their breakfast. They squatted on the ground to get the food that the two screws scoop into their tin mug. After the hanging, the scene looked very peaceful. The Eurasian boy walking beside George Orwell just mentioned nothing about his sympathy for the prisoners but said something about his newly bought silver case. From the description of the Eurasian boy, it can be seen the indifferent of him. After the hanging, several people laughed at something that nobody was certain. Francis’s words that “Well, sir, all has passed off with the utmost satisfactoriness” (Para.19, Line.1) also showed his indifferent. For what had happened, people did not mention it at all as if it had never happened. It showed how indifferent and cruelty people are, which was an ordinary phenomenon in that background. The scene suggested that with the brutal colonial rule of the colonies, people in the colonies become fearful. The colonists take military, political and economic actions to occupy, slavery, and exploit the weak state, nation and backward areas. Under the threat of the colonists, the colonized kill their fellow with no guilt. Those who had privilege did such as warders and superintendent in this article did not care people who were in the bottom of the society. They become extremely selfish and indifference. It seemed that the life of their compatriot was nothing to do with them.

Furthermore the scene showed the patience in George’s deeply mind. The Indian prisoner was so poor in the description of the author. He was only one of those people who were oppressed at that time. "The faces of the death penalty prisoners on the dock, the man in the waiting room, the underclass I bullied, and the servants I beaten with sticks in anger constant in my brain around." George later wrote in his article. From these words, it can be seen that he felt guilty and sympathetic for those poor people.

In a word, “A Hanging” revealed the misery of underprivileged people and their horrible situation. It also told the cruelty and indifferent of the colonists at that time. Most of them took violence means, such as the armed occupation, immigration, pirating plunder, fraudulent trading, and bloody slavery trade to rule people in the colonies. Therefore people in the colonies were not only in a miserable situation, they also turned indifferent and cruelty to their compatriot. Their minds were deeply influenced by the colonialism, which can be seen from the behavior of the prisoners, warders, and superintendent in this article.

The five years in Burma had a far-reaching influence for Orwell's later writing style. The influences were not only from the singular beautiful tropical climate, but also because he himself was a part of the colonial system. In the first line of the police’s oppressors made him have a great sense of guilt. He reflected on the issues of colonialism from then on. He began to gaze at the oppressed people who were in the bottom of society and started to tell their stories after that. After living in Burma town for five years, Orwell returned to England. And he chose his occupation as a writer. Ten years later he wrote that "A fundamental truth is that the scenery here is quite strange than its lonely or hot. At first, the exotic scenery bored him, and made him hateful, but in the end he will like it, his mind and his belief are more or less influenced by the scenery." His concern for the underprivileged people really started after that.



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