A sudden discovery can renew one’s perception of themselves, thus leading them to a new-found …show more content…
In A Hanging, the main character, discovers the faults of society and challenges his own perception of himself. The inhumane treatment of the “prisoner…was like men handling a fish”, a lot is told the nature of the officers towards the prisoners. The use of simile comparing “his handling” to “fish” emphasises, the lack of empathy towards the prisoner. Colonisers often treated the natives quite harshly, as they often resorted to capital punishment to enforce their system of order. Systems of punishments often were differentiated between the colonisers and the natives. After seeing similar incidents, the main character “realised what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man…I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short”, outlining his discovery. The main character undergoes an epiphany and sees the wrongness of the concept of capital punishment. He discovered the “wrongness” in capital punishment as he uses the simile “he was alive as just we were alive”, to emphasise his renewed perception human rights and equality. The main character discovers the immoral act of capital punishment which compels him to challenge his perspective on the wider world and himself as an officer
In The Tempest and in the A Hanging, both characters discover which compels them to challenge or affirm their perspectives of themselves and the wider world. The unexpected discovery