Conflict And External Conflict In A Hanging By George Orwell

Conflict, simply best described as the turmoil that exists in everyone’s life with degrees in which it varies among individuals. It is a real world problem that pertains to everyone and in which case even animals are bound to experience some form of conflict. In stories it is the stepping stone in which a character, strives to overcome the conflict they are presented with. In the case of “A Hanging” by George Orwell, the main character is introduced to a external conflict and throughout the development of each story must overcome an obstacle. What is interesting about the story is that through the author’s view of the execution it is the turning point which gave him the inspiration to say he is against capital punishment and tell the tale. …show more content…
The issue that can be seen on the surface toward the end of the story is that Orwell portrays the struggle between an individual vs. the whole of society. This can be seen as the case with the anecdote of the author showing the audience the process in which the man who represents the individual is struggling to resist against the fierce formidable guards who in turn represent modern society. Few gestures were mentioned regarding the appearance of both the prisoner and the guards escorting him, the prisoner was a very weak sickly man as compared to the brutes that were escorting him. This is very interesting because as later mentioned in the story it depicts that the prisoner without any struggle was able to push against the guards in order to step aside from the puddle. This can be seen as the representation of the author’s message in which although the prisoner who looks weak and has shown to given up, with ease is able to put up some amount of resistance against the guards who are supposed to represent society suppressing this …show more content…
It is through this that the author is able to nonverbally show that he is against capital punishment and believes that the prisoners are just as human as anyone else but were not treated as such. This is not to say however that only the author may feel this way, some of the other characters were shown to be laughing and making jokes regarding their jobs in order to retain whatever sanity they may have. The use of irony is strong indicated to show what little options the guards who have no choice regarding the reality of their situation, which is a comparison of how futile it is for an individual to go against