what does it mean? "Do you think that people who are in prison for life often think that they MAY AS WELL BE

Question

DEAD AS IN PRISON"?

What does it mean? Could you please provide a few examples usint the same expression: HE (or she) MAY AS WELL...AS.

I am a foreigner teacher and I must provide more examples using the same expression from above and I really don't understand it very well. Thanks a lot. Please, provide MORE than one example, ok?

Answer 1

In general, the phrase means that the second alternative is as good as the first alternative. It's usually used in a sarcastic or pessimistic sense. Examples:



He may as well cut his lungs out now as continue being a smoker.

If you don't have a college degree, you may as well trash that application to Google as turn it in.

I'm so burnt out that I figured I may as well answer Yahoo questions as go to school and do nothing in my office all day long :)



Those are awkward constructions, so I'm not sure they're proper english, but that gives you the gist of the construction's usage.

Answer 2

It means that if you are senteced to life in prison, your life is basically over. There is no chance of you leaving jail and having a normal life again. So instead of wasting the rest of your life in prison, you may as well be dead, as there is nothing more you can do to change your situation or what you will do/be in life.

Answer 3

Prison is dehumanizing. It's a brutal, animalistic half-life. You have no choices. Everything is decided for you. There is no love. Without love or the possibility of love or the possibility of making choices life is empty, shallow, monotonous, and pointless. Imagine living in an ice cube. Is it any wonder that one would prefer death?

Answer 4

Means that being in prison for the rest of your life is NO life at all. It'd be better to be dead than to have to live in prison for the rest of your life.

Answer 5

It is asking if you think that a person who is in prison for their entire life thinks that he is equivalent to being dead.



Another sentence might be, "I can't travel more than ten miles; if it's further away, then it might as well be a million miles away, because I can't go."

Answer 6

My idea is they are in prison under forced control and that they need that like a spanking or discipline...they cant function in the world and they need to be in a control ed environment.

Answer 7

may as well.. it means that, out of choice, out of chance to do the other way around, just let it be, or let yourself fall into it(situation).



e.g.



It is snowing hard, may as well walk to the store instead of taking the chances of getting stranded with my car in the side streets..

Answer 8

it means the indivisual is basically in the same position. he can die in prison( prison is a miserable experience) or he could just kill himself to shorten the pain.

Answer 9

It means that being is prison is like death, permanent, no change, no freedom, hope for future etc.

Answer 10

Mabey because they realized they did something wrong and fell bad about it or they hate their lives

I'm not too sure.