i Don't Really Know Essay

Submitted By brantpeta
Words: 2421
Pages: 10
Open Document
Essay Question (100 points)
Read the following essay. Make sure you understand it before you write your response.
Remember the guidelines you’ve studied on how to take an essay exam. Use them in writing your response.
I would make yourself a scratch outline before you write. Your response should be an essay which is at least 3 paragraphs long. Your evidence should consist mainly of quotations from the essay, and your analysis and evaluation of those quotations.
Your thesis should be that the essay is 1) effective, 2) ineffective, or 3) partially effective in convincing you that the author’s world view is correct. You should follow this with a plan of development, laying out your arguments.
I wouldn’t worry about a hook, or a long summary at the end of the essay. While I often encourage synthesis, please DO NOT relate any long stories about your life in your response (A few sentences about your life, on the other hand, might be appropriate). That would miss the point of the question and get you a poor grade.
Please write your response on the back of the test sheets. You may not have a second copy of the test for any reason.
Specific notes about this essay: The essay is slightly longer than I’d prefer, but the reading level is low—below 6th grade—which should more than make up for it being half a page longer than I intended.
Orwell’s thesis is never (quite) stated outright. You must analyze the essay to discover the thesis. Some questions that may help you approach the essay: What does Orwell think of capital punishment, of colonialism (here the British rule of Burma), crime, and guilt? Why doesn’t he tell us what the man has done—shouldn’t that be important information? When he describes the various responses people have to the hanging, what impressions or ideas is he trying to get you to take away?
Vocabulary:
Gallows The equipment used to execute a person by hanging
Dravidian A large family of languages spoken especially in southern India and northern Sri Lanka that includes Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam...
Warders Guards
Pariah The term pariah dog (also pye dogs, or pi dogs) originally referred to Chinese/Indian feral dogs of a particular type.
Aghast Offended, confused by a surprising turn of events.
Gambolled Dancing, frolicking
Eurasian A person (or something else) which mixes qualities associated with Europe with qualities associated with Asia. This is referring to someone who was mixed race.
Chalo Hindi word meaning “let’s go.”
Lathis A stout stick
Pannikin Dish or shallow pot
Snigger To giggle foolishly or inappropriately
Boxwallah Box seller/maker
Rupees/Annas Money
Garrulously excessive and often trivial or rambling talk
Refractory unwilling
“A Hanging” by George Orwell
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.
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 the others handcuffed him, passed a chain through his handcuffs and fixed it to their belts, and lashed his arms tight to his sides. They crowded very close about him, with their hands always on him in a careful, caressing grip, as though all the while feeling him to make sure he was
Show More

Related Documents: i Don't Really Know Essay

Annotation Bibliography Essay

other people do not really know the meaning to elegy. Some try to say that it means a mournful, or a lament for the dead, but the debate of the word in not successful. Assessment To me I think the author is correct because people do not the real meaning of elegy. I mean Old English is very different from English. The goal of the source is to tell you that some people don’t really know the meaning of elegy. Reflection It fits my research because it tells how people don’t know the meaning. Yes…

Words 514 - Pages 3

Personal Narrative: My Strengths

I am really good at drawing, playing basketball, playing with Lego's, doing origami, and playing chess because it keeps me occupied and it helps me focus. I am also good at helping people because I get to show people how to get past problems that they don't understand. One of my strengths that matters to me is playing chess because it shows me opportunity's in real life and it might help me with my brain to think harder. I have been told many times that one of my strengths is playing basketball but…

Words 320 - Pages 2

Anthropology: Voter Turnout and Election Essay

Many Americans don't take part in the presidential elections for different types of reasons. I believe that many have some psychological reasoning; there is something that causes them to just give up . It seems as if the main cause is due to civic competence because many Americans feel as if no changes will be made and don't take part in any of it. America’s voter turnout is so low compared to other wealthy democracies for so many reasons; civic competence, laziness, age, lack of education and…

Words 3507 - Pages 15

How Prepared Am I For Online Study Success

prepared am I for online study success? 1. Use the box below to introduce yourself in less than 50 words. You may wish to include in your introduction any specific learning objectives you want to achieve through studying this course. . I am currently unemployed and looking for a new career and direction. I have worked in admin before but know you have to hold a qualification so by doing this course It will give me the opportunity to learn and progress in my career. 2. I think of myself…

Words 429 - Pages 2

Satire About Makeup

I woke up at 5:20 an hour early just to do my makeup. Looks pretty and very good. But what is the definition of pretty? All I know is I’m not the definition of it. I wore all white today, I know a bold decision for a woman. My best friend told me I looked pretty, but was I pretty? I only ever feel pretty with makeup on. Only for the makeup. It hurts. But I don’t know how to feel without it. I insult myself. Mirror. The. Body. The. Face. Everything. The. All because a few people put me down, I view…

Words 545 - Pages 3

Shitty First Draft Summary

drafts. She states that it doesn't matter if you don't know what to write about, just start typing even if you don't know what are you writing about. The only comment or critique that I have regarding this reading is that I really didn't get why did the author had to emphasize and talk about God and priests. I do understand that her friend is a priest but I really don't see how is this relevant to writing a shitty first draft. The rest of the reading I really have to say that…

Words 263 - Pages 2

Personal Statement: I Am Good At Playing Black Ops

I am really good at doing makeup because I enjoy it and I don't get bored doing it and I can spend hours practicing new looks and techniques. I know I should say that I'm good at doing something from school but I'm honestly not so I always find something else to do in my spare time. I am also good at drawing but only when I'm bored for example when I'm in class and the class starts to get boring I'll just start doodling and it turns into a master piece but when I'm drawing because I just feel like…

Words 332 - Pages 2

Eth125 R8 Wk2 Myths And Stereotypes Essay

BOY 1: You know you have all of these stereotypes about gay people. You have stereotypes about gay youth that they either commit suicide or they’re off having promiscuous sex. GIRL 1: Every homosexual man is a potential child molester. BOY 2: Like, my straight friends, they’ll see like, gay guys and they’ll be like oh my God, watch out. They’ll try to get in your pants. MAN: There’s a myth that gay adults like myself want to recruit gay youth and that’s just not true. GIRL 2: I was sent to…

Words 597 - Pages 3

Love and Father Essay

Im smart like he was but I really don’t care. Im a college dropout because I had to take care of my ill father & cause I cared about him a lot. I just don’t trust those doctors at those institutions. I’d rather know that he’s safe with me. I’ve spent so many years taking care of him, all by myself, no thanks to Claire, my sister. Some sister she is. She left me all alone with him to take care of while she spent her great life in NY. I hate her. I’m worried about myself. I keep thinking that I’m carrying…

Words 520 - Pages 3

Short Story 'Ironwood Thicket'

That was a lot. I can barely follow what she said. “So um, for this tour, am I going to have to cross this ‘Ironwood Thicket’” I ask, trying to disguise my nerves. She laughs, “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. But you know, you’re gonna have to go to the other side at some point.” “Yeah, I know,” I want to talk about something else. “What’s up with the nets everywhere?” “Oh. Those something we like to call ‘hail-ten’ because they protect everything from the hail. It’s a complicated…

Words 1916 - Pages 8