Capital Punishment: Short Stories and Literary Analysis

This assignment involves writing a short story on capital punishment followed by a detailed analysis of the topic using literary devices such as imagery and metaphor. The essay explores the complexities of capital punishment in different scenarios and states of mind, concluding with an examination of the subject's requirements in the body of law.

Capital Punishment

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Part 1 .............................................................................................................................................1
Part 2................................................................................................................................................2
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Capital punishment is the activity of death penalty given as a punishment to a person for
conducting a certain kind of crime after a proper legal trial. This practice is sanctioned by the
government of the state (Capital punishment, 2019). This activity is for the crime which are
known as capital crimes or offences and they commonly include crimes like murder, law-
breaking, crimes against humanity and racial extermination. Capital punishment is used in many
countries all over the world and there are 141 countries which have abolished capital punishment
in law or in practice.
Part 1
Story 1-
For instance, there was a man named Robert who was sentenced to capital punishment
for murdering a man called Alex. The reason Robert killed Alex because he was molesting his
sister, it is irrefutable that murder is wrong and the people involved in it should be punished by
the law for it. However, in this case Robert was just trying to protect his sister from the person
who was hurting her. There were no other intentions to make harm to Alex. Because of these
facts, it could be argued that what Robert did can be considered as a mere act of self-defence for
the person who was unable to defend herself at that time. It is clear that Robert committed a
crime but it was not his intentions to commit, it happened because there was no other choice left
to him. Capital punishment can also result in putting innocent lives at stake at times. This action
draws a very unclear and conflicting message, capital punishment attempt to prevent guilty from
murder and violent crimes by executing the convicted ones. It has been said that capital
punishment is not required because there are many more alternatives to it. Unsentimental
judgement of conviction will help discourage offenders from committing heinous crimes (King
and Ward, 2015). Although there are many countries in the world which have abolished this
activity completely and some countries still use it very actively. The ones which use it feels that
capital punishment is the best deterrent to the guilty. Whereas, over 100 countries which has
abolished the capital punishment from their law feels that it is a biggest sin a society will commit
by taking a life of a person. This story is concluded as, every time capital punishment is not
justified for a person in these types of cases nor it sets a great example among other people.
Story 2-
1

There was a man named Dexter who killed a family of three when he went to rob their
house. The court held the proceedings against him and he was charged guilty. He was punished
with capital punishment. He showed good behaviour for a period of one year during his prison
days. As a result, the court converted his death sentence into life imprisonment. He continued to
maintain his good behaviour and was revised on parade by the court after 12 years of his
imprisonment. After a year, Dexter committed another murder of a person with whom he
indulged in a heated argument in market place. Dexter was tried, condemned and was
successfully executed.
Crimes and criminals like these are unique, but unfortunately these cases are not
uncommon (Steiker and Steiker, 2012). Intentions of a person can easily be accessed by these
cases (Petty, 2014). Dexter been given death punishment on the first time itself would have
saved a life. These cases prove that capital punishment is required in law of body to punish
criminals who indulge themselves in heinous crimes. This is important as it states the importance
of values of a society which values the human life. The lives of these criminals cannot be granted
by risking the lives of the people who value it. If the law fails to punish these wild criminals,
then indirectly they are allowing these people to kill the bunch of innocent people. Criminal
activities like rape, murder, terrorism and many more can be measurably controlled when the
criminals know that death penalty is practised.
This story is concluded by stating that capital punishment proves to be the only tool to
make a balance in the society by controlling these criminals with this type of punishment. An eye
for an eye may make the world blind, but in these cases allowing one man to harm the other will
leave us with the society where only malicious people could see. .
Part 2
The idea I have drawn from the stimulus capital punishment is that, Capital punishment is
used to punish a person with death penalty who has committed a crime which the respective law
considers as heinous enough to sentenced that person to death. This activity does not prevent
fierce action in mentally challenged criminals. Criminals who are mentally retarded before they
are convicted in a case they have no stable state of mind to figure out good or bad. In most of the
cases these people turn into a criminal because they are unable to function properly in the society
and have no idea of their actions. Capital punishment can also result in putting innocent lives at
stake at times.
2

The effectiveness of narrative technique is that it provides profound meaning to the
reader and help them to use their imagination power to visualize the situation. The literary
elements of narrative technique include are setting a plot, style, characters, and perspective of the
story.
The language devices used in this narrative form were allusion, diction, euphemism,
foreshadowing, imagery and metaphor. These devices helped me in writing the stories in a very
effective manner like -
 Allusion- it helped me to define the perspective of an author when he refers to the events
or stories of others to convey his own story with the intentions that it will be relatable to
the topic presented by him.
 Diction- it refers to the choice of words I have used to describe the story.
 Euphemism- I have used it because it is often used in literature where the writer wants to
explain some serious or an offensive event.
 Foreshadowing- I have used it for creating a sort of suspense or to lead the readers
towards the ideas without disclosing it fully.
 Imagery- the sensory details presented by the me for evoking the tone of my story.
 Metaphor- I have tried to convey a message from the story it will be necessary for the
readers to compare it with the other story.
With all these adjectives of their own these devices helped me in writing the short stories on
capital punishment in very narrative form. So that will help the reader to understand the point of
view on the subject.
The art of writing is not an easy task it involves various complexities in the process.
Writing a proper essay or short stories requires proper planning and a good knowledge of the
subject. Throughout the semester the quality of my writing has improved significantly. At first, I
used to struggle with finding the proper format to my writings and language techniques which I
have tried to overcome this time and to improve my skills. The weaknesses I face is of
grammatical errors and sometimes not expressing my thoughts clearly. This time analysing these
both I have tried to complete my task in a good form.
CONCLUSION
Thus, it is concluded from the above information that the topic capital punishment comes
with different layers of its requirement in the body of law. It depends on different scenarios
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related to the intention in which the crime is being done and state of mind of the criminal
involved in it. While writing the short stories a proper language technique has been followed
with proper literary devices.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bohm, R. M., 2016. Deathquest: An introduction to the theory and practice of capital
punishment in the United States. Routledge.
Cowen, T., 2014. Capital Punishment: Why a Global Tax on Wealth Won't End Inequality.
Foreign Aff.. 93. p.158.
Gillespie, L. K., and et. al., 2014. Exploring the role of victim sex, victim conduct, and victim–
defendant relationship in capital punishment sentencing. Homicide Studies. 18(2).
pp.175-195.
Hochkammer, W. O., 2017. The capital punishment controversy. In Capital Punishment (pp. 65-
84). Routledge.
King, P. and Ward, R., 2015. Rethinking the bloody code in eighteenth-century Britain: capital
punishment at the centre and on the periphery. Past & present. 228(1). pp.159-205.
Petty, R. E., 2014. Historical Foundations of the Cognitive Response Approach to Attitudes.
Cognitive responses in persuasion, p.5.
Sarat, A., 2018. When the state kills: Capital punishment and the American condition. Princeton
University Press.
Steiker, C. S. and Steiker, J. M., 2012. Entrenchment and/or Destabilization-Reflections on
(Another) Two Decades of Constitutional Regulation of Capital Punishment. Law &
Ineq.. 30. p.211.
Online
Capital punishment. 2019. [Online] Available
through<https://www.britannica.com/topic/capital-punishment>.
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