"A Hanging" by George Orwell

People sometimes undergo difficult situations when they are forced to carry out orders by authority. George Orwell's "A Hanging" is a descriptive essay about capital punishment. The setting of this essay is placed in an early twentieth-century prison in Burma, a country ruled by the British Empire. Considering that George Orwell was an imperial police officer in Burma, it is highly probable that this essay is related to his own experience. The essay, presented through the eyes of the narrator, examines primitive human nature. Orwell develops his essay through characters who perform their j…