Indira Fernandez: "A Hanging"

This story was extremly interesting to me, specially for the overall message given to us by the author. In "A Hanging", George Orwell is trying to tell us that a human live can be easily taken, but no one has the right to do it. Also, it is my belief that Orwell try to tell us that punishment and cruelty are really serious terms when they are about to be executed in a conscious, living person. During this reading we have a moment of clarity and understanding when the condemned, the Hindu prisoner, on his way to the gallows tried to avoid the puddle so that he wouldn't get wet. Such action made Orwell realize that in fact the prisoner was alive, that this man was completely conscious of his surrounding, and the events that were taking place at that moment. I believe the author is trying to tell us that people might act different when confronting death, but it does't mean they are not alive.