George Orwell’s and Truman Capote’s Arguments Against The Death Penalty

Since the foundation of America, the question of the morality of the death penalty has plagued American society. Both George Orwell and Truman Capote attempted to address this issue through fictional and non-fictional tales of the gallows. Capote and Orwell wrote to convey their purpose of asserting that a life on death row is worth just as much as any other life while establishing a negative viewpoint of the death penalty through juxtaposition caused by a gloomy description of the setting and normal diction in dialogue. 

Throughout their respective passages, Capote and Orwell both write with the purpose of establishing that a life on death row is worth just as much as any other life. Orwell echoes this claim through the realization the narrator came to when he “saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide” (Orwell). Furthermore, Capote places emphasis upon this assertion through his highlight of ironic statements made by onlookers at the execution. For example, while Dick and Perry are living the last few minute of their life, a witness exclaims “Christ! Is that rain? All the windows down! My new Chevy. Christ!” (Capote). The irony of the witnesses being concerned with their cars getting when Dick and Perry aren’t even concerned about their necks being snapped further demonstrates how the witnesses view death penalty victims as objects rather than real people. Capote continued to place emphasis upon the irony of the situation by describing the witnesses of the execution as “impatient” (Capote), as if someone owed them death. 

Both Capote and Orwell utilize dark imagery and an ironic tone establish an overall negative point of view of the death penalty. Orwell immediately conveys a negative viewpoint through his personification of “condemned cells” (Orwell); asserting that even the inanimate objects in the gallows were confined to a life of despair. Furthermore, by describing how the condemned prisoners “stood quite unresisting, yielding his arms limply to the ropes” (Orwell), Orwell asserts that the death penalty removes the hope out of the living men; arguably stripping their life away from them before they even reach the gallows. Capote builds upon his negative perspective of the death penalty by extracting sympathy from the audience for Perry. After constantly building up sympathy for Perry throughout the entire book, Capote hits the reader with one last emotional blow by describing Perry’s “childish feet, tilted, dangling” (Capote). This paints a disturbing image in the reader's mind of an innocent child hanging from the noose, rather than a convicted murderer; placing further emphasis on Orwell and Capote’s negative view of the death penalty. 

Through the use of juxtaposition caused by a gloomy description of the setting and normal diction in dialogue, both Capote and Orwell demonstrate the atrocity of society's acceptance of the death penalty as routine. At the beginning of the passage, Capote describes the setting of the gallows as “bleakly lighted cavern cluttered with lumber and other debris” (Capote), thereby asserting the setting as a depressing place. However, Capote goes on the juxtapose this description by depicting pleasant dialogue between viewers of the hanging. As Capote writes, one onlooker described the events as “festivities” (Capote); another one explaining the action of being hung as simply “jumping off a diving board” (Capote). In the same way, Orwell juxtaposes his “desolate” (Orwell) and “dreadful” (Orwell) description of the gallows with a cheerful depiction of the prison workers; emphasizing how they “all began laughing” (Orwell). 

In conclusion, Capote and Orwell’s use of irony, juxtaposition, and depressing imagery created a compelling argument against the death penalty that drove home their purpose of asserting that a life on death row is worth just as much as any other life.