Capital Punishment in the Work of George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and Norm

Capital Punishment in the Work of George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and Norman MailerCapital punishment in the essays by George Orwell, H.L. Mencken, and Norman Mailer was a necessary evil to deter crime. These authors incorporated the use of alcohol or drugs as mind-altering chemicals to relieve the pressures of the fibres involved in finale due to capital punishment. Chemicals such as drugs and alcohol can be used for the pleasure of relieving stress, a means to forget, or a centering to subdue personal beliefs as the authors have illustrated. The pleasure of relieving stress in George Orwells essay A Hanging was detailed by his thoughts written as one of the executioners. This character drank alcohol to relieve the painful memories of escorting the prisoner to the gall(a)ows. The character would have rather saved the man from hanging when the author wrote It is curious, save till that moment I had never realized what it means to ruin a healthy, conscious man (pg 89). Orwell descri bes in detail how the condemned man was non dying, he was alive just as we are alive all the organs of his body were working, bowels digesting food, skin renewing itself, nails growing, tissues forming, all toiling onward in solemn foolery. (pg 89). The author continues to illustrate the characters mental anguish when he says he and we were a party of men walking together, seeing, hearing, feeling, understanding the comparable world, and in two minutes with a sudden snap, one o...