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'A Hanging' - George Orwell - extra note ...

Below is a exemplar essay. Remember, if you choose the non-fiction option, the question will be different. Your answer must reflect the question. Choose a non fiction text in which the writer expresses outrage or shock about an issue which you feel is important.                                                                                                                                       Show how the writer conveys the emotion and discuss to what extent this emotional response enhances your understanding of the issue. “A Hanging” by George Orwell is a non-fiction text in which the writer expresses his outrage and opposition to the issue of the use of capital punishment. The essay is set in Burma during the 1920’s, when Orwell, stationed there as a policeman, witnesses the hanging of a Hindu man. He expresses his outrage through his description of setting, character, turning point and by transferring some of his thoughts and feelings onto the appearance of a dog.

' A Hanging' by George Orwell - planning sheet for response to previous SQA critical essay question

4. Choose a novel or short story or a work of non–fiction which explores a theme which you find     Interesting. By referring to appropriate techniques, show how the writer explores this theme. Introduction – name of text, writer, genre, brief description, mention of task Setting                      –   Point                                       Evidence – ‘sickly light’, ‘yellow tinfoil’, ‘animal cages’, ‘plank bed’                                              ‘pot of drinking water’ ‘ten feet by ten’                                       Analysis and Reaction       Characterisation     –   Point                                       Evidence – ‘puny wisp of a man’, ‘moustache’, ‘comic’, ‘six tall                                                   guards’, ‘white drill suit and gold spectacles’                                       Analysis and Reaction       The dog              

Your paragraphs on 'A Hanging' by George Orwell

Here are the paragraphs completed after the carousel activity: Orwell uses a list to describe the gloomy atmosphere in Burma. 'We were waiting outside the condemned cells ... like small animal cages.' This emphasises the inhumane circumstances of the prison and how Orwell feels about capital punishment. The writer, George Orwell, goes into great detail when describing the convict to gain the reader's sympathy. He does this by describing the convict's living conditions and physique. For example, he describes the inmate as 'A puny wisp of a man', showing that he has been mistreated and is possibly malnourished. The writer also describes him as having 'vague liquid eyes' suggesting that the prisoner is trying to hold back tears and emotion. Orwell is shocked by the appearance of the dog. He writes that, despite the people being unhappy, the dog is happily wagging its tail and licking the prisoner's face. The writer uses word choice when

George Orwell - writer

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'A Hanging' (George Orwell)

George Orwell – ‘A Hanging’ 1         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. 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. 2         One prisoner had been brought out of his cell. He was a Hindu, a puny wisp of a man, with a shaven head and vague liquid eyes. He had a thick, sprouting moustache, absurdly too big for his body, rather like the moustache of a comic man on the films. Six tall Indian warders were guarding him and getting him ready for the gallows. Two of them stood by with rifles and fixed bayonets, while