The Absurdity of Punishing a Fellow Human Being

The short story "Some of us had been threatening out friend Colby" by Donald Barthelme is a satire about human cruelty. The author showed how irrational it could be for a group of people to enforce punishment on a fellow person, especially in the case of capital punishment. The author begins the story by declaring a bunch of friends wanted to have a friend, Colby, hung. The reason of this shocking action was mentioned very briefly and casually, as Colby's behavior had "gone too far." (1) After that the story swiftly moved onto detailed discussions of the ways his hanging was going to be ca…