[3] In the Penal Colony

• The significance of the moment was that the explorer was maybe shocked and surprised at the fact the condemned man did not know why he was being condemned. The story does have a point where it says, they don’t say what they did, so the person can talk their way out of the situation, but also leaves you with the question, if a person does something wrong, and they don’t know they did something wrong, should they be punished?

• The purpose of the execution machine is simple. To punish those who have been found guilty of doing something wrong.

• The harrow is used to more torture the human I believe. Farmers use it to dig up the ground and smooth it back out again, but to use it on a human, to have it tear up your skin, it just goes to show that you better not do anything wrong.  Once the harrow will destroy the human, its not going to smooth the human back to normal again. Which means the harrow is only there to act like a human shredder.

• The fact that the officer doesn’t feel sympathetic doesn’t really surprise me. With a punishment like that, why would you do something to put your own life in jeopardy. The officer was just doing his job, and weather he felt it was fair or unfair, his job is his job. Especially that he is an officer, and his job is t enforce the law, he can’t show any weakness, or any sign of going against the law.

• The word sentence is used more to show more the idea that the explorer cannot read, rather than to actually  have the idea that the officer is trying to show him something. The significance of that is the explorer doesn’t know either that the condemned man did.

• The significance about the space break and the last section is to show the importance of the ending. When they saw the explorer leaving, you can’t blame them, with harsh laws and punishment, for trying to get away from the Penal Colony.