Sunday, April 22, 2007 - George Orwell- A Hanging :

My reflections for "A Hanging"

1)George Orwell's "A Hanging" has been described as a powerful condemnation of capital punishment. What techniques does Orwell use to draw from his readers the desired inference, as his condemnation is delivered indirectly rather than more explicit means?

To begin with, Orwell uses dreadful descriptions of the prisoners in jail to convey a message to readers that they have been in such pitiful, sufferring states of living so to evoke symphathy in readers towards the prisoners. For instance, the passage states,"a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages" and "their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip.. like men handling a fish which is still alive and may jump back into the water." The latter is an analogy used by Orwell to portray how the prison warders treated the prisoner with wary and distrust similar to how men would tightly grab onto the fish for fear it would slip away from their fingers.

Subsequently, Orwell uses the scene where the prisoner stepped aside to avoid a puddle on the path to convince the readers that his mind was still in a conscious state despite knowing that it was he last few steps that he would make before his execution. "the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide" influences readers to agree with Orwell that the prisoner should not be executed when he is one alive body, healthy, coupled with the ability to think.



2. What are some of the arguments for and against capital punishment?

I shall first begin by explaining the arguments for capital punishment.
As most people would deem right, capital punishment is necessary to punish those who commit serious crimes, like murder or large scale killings like the recent heinous incident at Virginia Tech which took away lives, each a portray of promises and future. It is deserving for those who cast away the knowledge of consequences of committing the crime and took whoever's life they wanted to.

Capital punishment also serves to warn those who are teethering at the edges of committing crime, to remind them again that they would not be able to run free from the hands of the law and the callous ending where they had to too, end their own lives.

Most importantly, it is esential to protect the safety of potential victims and the human community in the country. By imposing capital punishment on serious crime offenders, it could be ensuring that he would not be on the prowl again, causing greater harm to society.

On the other hand, capital punishment is considered to be immoral to some people too. The main reason is because it is physically cruel to take away a living person's life, just like how it is for the doctors to remove the respiratory machine away from a patient who has lost his ability to breathe on his own. In the passage, Orwell expresses his disagreement towards capital punishment as it states I had never realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.

Not only that,some would think a second chance should be granted to crime offenders by giving counselling, psychological treatments and rehabilitation programmes rather than ending his life and not giving him a chance to repent and atone for his mistakes. Family members of these prisoners would live the rest of their lives in grief and shame for they would forever be remembered that someone is their family has done an inhumane act which led to his execution. Furthermore, they would be in anguish that their family member was punished in such a cruel way and this would leave a scarred mark in their memories of this person.

3. What are your own views on capital punishment? In what circumstances can the death penalty be justified?

I feel that capital punishment should still be carried out because its importance and benefits to the community outweighs the fact that it is cruel. Capital punishment, in my opinion, should be given to crime offenders like murder and mass killings. It is not revenge, nor giving him his "just desserts", but imposing a sentence that a prisoner should receive by doing such immoral acts without a thought for others. It is imperative that he should be executed as a inhumane person should not be forgiven easily for killing someone. In the long run, it would benefit the human community as people can live with peace knowing that this murderer is no longer present to put their lives at stake. If the offender is put into several counselling sessions instead, there is no guarantee that he would turn over a new leaf and return to society as a good-natured and kind person. People would again cower away and this makes their lives full of suspense and uncertainty that this ex-offender would strike again.

I believe that under the following circumstances, the death penalty can be justified. To start off, i feel that people like murderers, mass killers and terrorists should receive death penalty. There should not be any doubt to this because it is the safest way to protect the rest of the society from potential harm to their lives. Terrorists kill masses of people, even innocent ones. They should be punished by this method as they are really inhumane and it is impossible that they did it in a moment of folly, otherwise they would not have ended so many lives. As quoted in the times magazine, "a measure of our humanity that we could sooner imagine ourselves as the killed than as the killer, and find it easier to conjure up what it would feel like to plead for our lives than to take someone else's", it proves that these terrorists are imhumane and will not hestitate to kill someone.

Next, i feel that the death penalty should be carried out also on those who repeat less serious offences like kidnapping and illegal trafficking of drugs. If a person repeats his offences time and again, it obviously shows that he is not remorseful of his crimes and shows no obligation to change for the better. No amount of counselling and chances granted could help him. The only way to punish him is through capital punishment.Through this, a country's crime rate would be lowered and this ensures a certain degree of peace and order in the nation.

The future ain't what it used to be. hugged teddy at 3:23 AM

- Introduction :

Hello! This is the first time I am creating a blog and this is supposed to serve as a learning activity for General Paper only. Hehe. As the school's IVLE website states, "Blogging provides an opportunity for you to put your thoughts into words and in the process, organise them in a way that will aid recall", I shall treat blogging as a learning experience-- to express myself fluently in writings and to share my views on issues that I will come across with. =)

Now let me start by introducing myself. I am Tang Mei Wan, a second intake J1 student in Anderson Junior College. I was previously studying in Pioneer Junior College for the PAE. My name in Chinese is Deng Mei Yun. You can call me Meiwan or MeiYun =P
The cca which I have chosen is Chinese Orchestra!! Well, my former secondary school (kranji secondary school) did not offer CO as one of its CCAs,, so i guess i have lots to catch up on. =/

Hmm. The school has posted me to class 02/07. I wonder how my class will be like, whether many of my classmates have already been in AJC for the first 2 months, will they be in cliques already? I hope it would not be too difficult to mingle with my classmates, given the fact that there is not a single person I know in 02/07! Nevertheless I guess this would be a great chance for me to get to know more friends. Haha *staying positive*

Ok i shall stop here now. I hope this entry is not too long for an introductory one. =P

The future ain't what it used to be. hugged teddy at 2:04 AM