Feels guilty during and after killing the prisoner, but becomes confused when the other guards and prisoners act as if it's just another day in prison. The other guards try to tell the main character that it gets used to after a while and invite him to have a drink with them after work to help him deal with how he feels. The other guards did this to let him know that he is not the only one who feels this way and that after a while he will get used to this feeling. The author didn't want to make it a political piece because he didn't talk about what the prisoner did to get executed, he just said that it was wrong to shorten someone's life. The guard didn't seem to begin to feel guilty about taking the prisoner's life until the prisoner's face was covered and he began to cry out to his God. The prisoner was calm about being hanged until they clothed him on his head, then he started screaming for his God. This story was about how a guard started feeling guilty for taking people's lives even if they had done something wrong. It appears that this is the first time he has helped execute a prisoner because the other guards tell him that he needs to have a drink once the execution is over. The other guards invite him for a drink to let him know that he is not the only one who feels this way and that he can cope by drinking because he could get in trouble if he says how he feels because of the time that has been set.