A Hanging

“It was in Burma, a sodden morning of the rains. A sickly light, like yellow tinfoil, was slanting over the high walls into the jail yard.”

The first lines establish the setting and mood of the narrative. George Orwell creates an ominous tone through the waterlogged landscape and the comparison of the “sickly light” to “yellow tinfoil.” The simile is jarring, depicting something natural (the sun’s rays) in unnatural terms. This dissonance sets the tone for the hanging, which the author presents as a violation of the sanctity of life.

“We were waiting outside the condemned cells, a row of sheds fronted with double bars, like small animal cages. Each cell measured about ten feet by ten and was quite bare within except for a plank bed and a pot of drinking water. In some of them brown silent men were squatting at the inner bars, with their blankets draped round them. These were the condemned men, due to be hanged within the next week or two.”

At the beginning of the essay, the first-person narrator surveys the scene through the lens of colonial hierarchies. The pronoun “we” refers to the representatives and employees of the British Empire. The Dehumanization of Colonized Subjects is highlighted as the condemned men, in animalistic terms, squat in cages and drink out of bowls. Their otherness is emphasized in their depiction as “brown” and “silent.” The casual approximation that the men will be killed “within the next week or two” seems incongruously flippant.

“‘For God’s sake hurry up, Francis,’ he said irritably. ‘The man ought to have been dead by this time. Aren’t you ready yet? […] Well, quick march, then. The prisoners can’t get their breakfast till this job’s over.’”

Here, Orwell uses direct discourse with limited narrative commentary, inviting readers to reflect on the