by Linus (17) on May 19th, 2013 Politics and the english language was one of the more difficult reads we’ve had so far. I thought it was really interesting to read about Orwell’s different opinions and perspectives of writing given that he is one of the most influential writers i’ve ever studied. Orwell’s explanation and reasoning about how societies use of language is continuously become simpler. I agree with Orwell’s opinion here and think that it can be easily observed especially now in our time, with the newer generation using unnecessary abbreviations such as LOL, OMG and so on. I think that this is a great representation of what Orwell means by language continuously becoming simpler. Orwell believes that our civilisation is decadent and our language must inevitably follow. This is an interesting thought.
Orwell opinion of the different uses of politics and the means by which language is used in politics was also interesting. Orwell states that Politics is a mass of lies, hatred, and so on. He believes that this general bad atmosphere is ruing language and it is language that suffers as a result. Orwell believes that if thought corrupts language, then language must also corrupt thought. I like this statement because i have had my own thoughts about this. I believe that there is a strong correlation between language and knowledge and language cannot exist without thought. Because of this and various other reasons, i highly agree with Orwell’s perspectives.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on May 15th, 2013 In this essay, Orwell starts by talking about the returning of Spring, and how the spawning of toad is a perfect example. Orwell’s enthusiasm of nature is shown in this essay. The detailed description of the toad implies that Orwell is very a good observer and has a strong interest in nature as well as things around him.
In this short essay, Orwell emphasizes the power of nature and Spring. “It comes seeping in everywhere, like one of those new poison gases which pass through all filters.” This description of nature shows everyone is equal in front of nature, and that no one can avoids this.
“The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.”
This is the conclusion of this essay, I think what Orwell trying to say is that some human beings are foolish as they only care about things that do not really matter, or things that are not real such as factories, lies. What people should try to do is to relate to the obvious thing – nature.
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by Jarand (17) on May 15th, 2013 Politics and the English Language was more or less about Orwell telling the reader about people who use dead metaphors, since everyone knew what they meant at that time. Some examples of the ‘dead’ metaphors are ring the changes on, take up the cudgels for, toe the line, ride roughshod over, no axe to grind, etc.” These were some of the many examples Orwell uses to tell the reader that they should never use metaphors that are being used by other people, since people who do not understand the metaphor might read them in a piece of literature and wonder what it might mean.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on May 15th, 2013 In this essay, Orwell comments on the some of the murders and also analyses the causes of most of these murders. One think that is particularly interesting is that Orwell generalizes these ‘common’ murder cases and put them into categories.
“The desire to gain a secure position in life, or not to forfeit one’s social position by some scandal such as a divorce – was one of the main reasons for committing murder.” Here, Orwell concludes the main causes of murder, which is usually true. He considers these types of common murders with “no dept of feeling in it.” Later in the essay, Orwell talks about what he thinks is a ‘perfect murder’. This murder does not follow the usual routes of the other common ones. Orwell makes a strong relationship between murders and war. He believes that the public’s reaction to murders is strongly related to the war period, and society.
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by Jarand (17) on May 14th, 2013 I found “Some Thoughts On The Common Toad” was full of nonsense, since Orwell spends 1-2 pages talking about a toad. Why would he spend time on talking about how the toads wake up after they hibernate, when he could talk about something else if the theme was about spring? There are a lot of other examples of what is happening, when spring comes. “If man cannot enjoy the return of spring, why should he be happy in a labor-saving Utopia?” Even though the toad was in the begging of the excerpt does not mean that I did not enjoy the rest of the excerpt. This is quite an interesting quotation, since Orwell asks why shouldn’t we be enjoying life? Orwell is enjoying the spring, since it sort of gives the hope of a new life begins after the long winter.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on May 14th, 2013 This is one of the most interesting essays I have read. Orwell had very thought provoking views about Gandhi. First of all, it is obvious that Orwell does not particularly like Gandhi, but it is true that Orwell has certain respects for Gandhi. “For his whole life was a sort of pilgrimage in which every act was significant” This implies that although Orwell might not agree with Gandhi about certain ideas, Gandhi is undeniably an interesting man with unique thoughts. In this essay, Orwell comments on a lot some of the beliefs of Gandhi. Gandhi was willing to let people die instead of giving animal food. “This attitude is perhaps a noble one, but, in the sense which – I think- most people would give to the word, it is inhuman.” This is an example of Orwell disagreeing with Gandhi, he thinks that Gandhi’s belief is sometimes too extreme and irrational. “Close friendships, Gandhi says, are dangerous, because”friends react on one another” and through loyal to a friend can be led into wrong being.” This is a very interesting quote I think, “this is unquestionably true”. We can see that although Orwell does not like some of Gandhi’s other theories, in some occasions Orwell absolutely agrees with him.
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by Linus (17) on May 13th, 2013 I found this essay especially interesting. Orwell allows readers to catch another glimpse into his personel psychology by expressing his appreciation for spring. Orwell’s reasoning behind his talk of toads was a mystery to me at first. But i think as one continues to read further along in the essay it becomes more clear. Orwell mentioned in the text that toads have never had much of an influence on poets. I think that this really depicts Orwell’s open mindedness compared to other poets and writers. It seems to me that Orwell had the ability to be more creative with his writing compared to other writers, who are narrow minded and are therefore limited in what they write about. I believe that there is a strong correlation between this and Orwell’s observational skills.
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by Michelle (14) on May 13th, 2013 Last week we were reading ‘Some Thoughts On The Common Toad’ by Orwell. This is a short essay talking about how toads are mating in spring and how Orwell favours spring out of all the season. “The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. ” Orwell implies to us that spring is the best season of all and is trying to persuade the reading to think that too. Orwell uses word choice such as narrow, gloomy and brighter to make us agree with his opinion. All the words mention are descriptive words used to describe spring. Orwell uses imagery of birds to convey the joy and pleasure during spring. I did not really like this essay because it was boring at parts for instance the description of the toad.
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by Michelle (14) on May 13th, 2013 ‘Decline of the English Murder’ by Orwell was a interesting essay, it talks about murder novels and how they are similar. Most of this essay is composed of descriptions of different murder novels. ‘Of the above-mentioned nine cases, at least four have had successful novels based on them’ Orwell suggest that murder novels have the same template in the form of writing. There are also general patterns and links between murder novels stated in this essay. I personally enjoyed reading this short essay because it was quite fascinating to read about murder cases and Orwells ideal ‘perfect’ murder story.
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by Jarand (17) on May 13th, 2013 “Our great period in murder, our Elizabeth period, so to speak, seems to have been between roughly 1850 and 1925, and the murderers whose reputation has stood the test of time are the following: Dr. Palmer of Rugely, Jack the Ripper, Neill Cream, Mrs. Maybrick, Dr. Crippen, Sedon, Joseph Smith, Armstrong and Bywaters and Thompson.”
It is interesting, how these murders are not been solved. With this quotation, Orwell ponders what was the reason for these murders. He also tells the reader that some of these murders have been written into literature, which means that some were written into plays, novels, etc.
I found it interesting how Orwell, an author is so tied up with murderers. What could be the purpose of him being tied up with murders? Could it be that he gets inspiration?
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by Michelle (14) on May 13th, 2013 Last week we read ‘Reflections on Gandhi’ by Orwell, I quite like this essay because its about human rights and how one person can make a huge difference on the world. It makes me think that if someone is determined to do something then (s)he can or might be able to achieve it if they tried. I personally admire Gandhi for what he did for society. Through Orwells writing style in ’Reflections on Gandhi’ it shows that he slightly dislikes or disapproves of Gandhi. “I have never been able to feel much liking for Gandhi” this sentence is another honest and direct personal feeling from Orwell. The last sentence of this essay is quite powerful “how clean a smell he has managed to leave behind”. This sentence is slightly ironic, how Orwell might be stating the opposite. This is a strong way to end an essay, letting the readers not have a definite answer.
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by Linus (17) on May 12th, 2013 This was a short but interesting piece. Orwell explains the nature of murder and crime stories and as a writer, displays his knowledge and understanding of the readers and what they want in a story. In this case murder stories. Orwell uses real life cases and murders and using the public’s reaction to these murders to demonstrate his ideas. I also think that this piece displays a slight fascination and interest with murder and crime stories. And i think that this is something a lot of people including myself can relate to.
Orwell’s selection of criminals was also interesting and again demonstrated his knowledge of what readers want. His observation of the reasons for these crimes and his ability to make correlations with reasons to different criminal acts, displays a high level of intelligence and demonstrates Orwell’s ability to make good observations and then derive accurate conclusions from these observations.
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by Sabrina (17) on May 11th, 2013 When Reading “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell I found it that I was very confused at most parts and did not really understand it overall. I agree with Orwell though that scientist for an example, would speak with sophisticated words to sound smarter. In the english language we use words such as “mansions” which is taken from the french or “daja vu” which is also from the french, to sound more posh or sophisticated or smart. Orwell argues that the political writers of modern English prose use vocabulary that are not exact and necessary and the result in a lack of understanding of the subject. This then leads to a lack of meaning and understanding to the public. Orwell implies that to have clear prose the political writer must be interested or understanding of their writing otherwise the writing will be vague and pointless. I found this essay very boring but taught me some things about writing overall.
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by Sabrina (17) on May 11th, 2013 This week I’ve been reading “Some thoughts on the common toad” By George Orwell, I found the essay strange and quite inappropriate. I found the essay inappropriate because when he talks about watching the toads mate, which ruin my image of spring which was what it seemed like was the theme of the essay. It was inspring though how Orwell talked about how no one can ruin that moment of spring breaking out. However I don’t agree with toads being part of spring as a good thing because I don’t find toads beautiful, new life or peaceful I find them gross, disgusting and weird. Overall I did not like the essay except some of it’s context, I found the essay more of describing something that we don’t usually think about though which was nice to have brought to mind.
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by Sabrina (17) on May 11th, 2013 I thought when reading “Decline of the english murder” by George Orwell that it was interesting because we was describing the murders and I found it always like it was a detective story, getting all the information before solving a case. I found it that I started to compare our day to back then and discovered that now a days it is easier to find the murderer. While back then they would take such a long time to discover the murderer, Although both centuries are alike and still find the missing murderer by human forces. However now we have technology and chemicals to discover footprints or finger prints etc. I found this essay to lift hope for Orwell in me where I had started to give up on reading his pieces out of boredom.
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by Jarand (17) on May 9th, 2013 Reading Reflections on Gandhi was very interesting, since Orwell has said that he did not like Orwell. With such an introduction it is interesting to read how he reflects on him.
“Close friendships, Gandhi says, are dangerous, because “friends react on one another” and through loyalty to a friend one can be led into wrong-doing,”
This quotation is such a bizarre reaction towards friendships. Most people would say that friendships are essential to life, but according to Gandhi it is something that is a blockade towards becoming a saint. Not all people have chosen to become a saint.
“No doubt alcohol, tobacco, and so forth are things that a saint must avoid, but sainthood is also a thing that human beings must avoid.”
Now, Orwell says that people have to avoid becoming saints, but is that so that we would not stop interacting with each other? This is an interesting quotation, since he says that obviously have saints to resist temptation, but average people should not become saints.
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by Tal (10) on May 9th, 2013 A few days ago, we read a very interesting piece called “Reflections on Gandhi”. Before reading this piece I didn’t really know who Gandhi was, I knew he was important, yet I didn’t really know why.
I must say ,that, for me, this was the most interesting piece I’ve read so far in “The Orwell Reader”. Even thought it was only seven pages long it made me think about more things then the other essays in this book.
Orwell writes about Gandhi and what were his thoughts about him. On top of page 329- “They made a good impression on me, which Gandhi himself at that time, did not.” He didn’t like Gandhi very much yet respects him. I personally think that it was because of Gandhi’s world of view. Gandhi have very extreme points of view, and people either think he is amazing or think that he is crazy, because he really sees the world black and white, I personally am not sure whether I like what he had to offer or not. Some of his quotes were very true and smart, and I liked them, for example:
“In the end deceivers deceive only themselves” -329 paragraph 1 line six from the bottom. This if very true! When we lie or are mean to other people, we are basically lying to ourselves, because one will start believing to the lies they told, which means that at the end of the day they are lying to no one but themselves.
“Love means nothing if it does not mean loving some people more than others”-331 lines 2-3 from the bottom. I believe that when a sentence like this is said, any word added to start and analyze will decrees from the power of the sentence.
“The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty”- 332 lines13-15 from top. The essence mean simply means nature, so the nature of being human is that we don’t seek perfection. I strongly believe that this is true. As much as we think we do seek perfection, we don’t. We were wont imperfect, and no matter how hard we try, we won’t reach perfection. This does not mean that we shouldn’t drive for perfection is different thing, but it should be reasonable.
The second part of the sentence is that “one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty”. A simple example for that is if a friend tells you a very importance secret, a secret that will change things, and you promise not to tell. Many times we prefer to stay loyal to someone, so that they can trust us, yet what many do not realize is that sometimes, it is the right thing to go forward and tell the secret. Sometimes with secrets are a matter of life and death situations, and as much as we think that being loyal is important, doing the right thing is as twice as important.
“One must choose between God and men”. Page 332 line 10 from the bottom. We can’t have it all. We can either be committed to God, or we can “commit” to the world, and that is men, as is human beings.be committed to the world doesn’t mean that we are dedicating our life for the world, it means that we live with the world and all the thing it comes with. When one chooses God, there are certain rules and commitments that come with it, and with them comes sacrifices. There will be things that everyone will do, but he or she already committed, therefore they wont be able to do it. Its not that they wont be able to do it physically, it’s that they won’t be able to do it because of the decision they made.
Therefore I believe that one can either commit to the world or to God, not both nor any.
One the other hand, I did not agree with some of the things he wrote. For instance:
Orwell mentioned many times the word Saint. For a Jewish reader, like myself, there is no such thing as a saint. Man and god are not one. God is the superior one, and we are just humans. However, the Christians do believe in saints. It was interesting to read what people thought about saints and what saints are supposed and not supposed to do. The most important thing that I learned from reading about saints. Is that it does not matter if one believes in it or not, or even if they think its complete nonsense, they cannot tell you this is wrong, because it is one’s truth.
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by Sabrina (17) on May 9th, 2013 The essay “Reflections on Gandhi” by George Orwell, I found boring and long to read yet again. I found that Orwell is just writing about another day in his life which I find to be exhausting to read. Orwell talks about Gandhi’s life quite a bit through out the essay, and it seems that Orwell did not see Gandhi as a bad man, but more as a character who is unwilling to become to close to anyone, as “Close friendships, Gandhi say, are dangerous….”. “on three occasions he was willing to let his wife or a child die rather than administer the animal food prescribed by the doctor.” This I found to be ridiculous if it were necessary to my health, I would force down something I would not have regularly eaten. Although I found it inspiring that Gandhi stood up to what he believed in which was being a vegetarian.
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by Linus (17) on May 9th, 2013 This essay was definitely one of the more interesting and engaging texts we’ve read so far. In this text readers are given new perspective into Orwell’s personality and psychology. Readers gain this new perspective through learning about Orwell’s views and thoughts about Mahatma Gandhi and his cause.Through out the text Orwell expresses his disapproval of the things one associated with Gandhi, which through further research and analysis of Gandhi, i find understandable. What i found most interesting was despite Orwell’s disapproval, he still highly respects Gandhi for his beliefs and i think Orwell believed that Gandhi benefitted this world simply by just being alive.
It was also interesting to learn more about Gandhi himself while reading the text. As Orwell wrote this essay based off of Gandhi’s autobiography, he is able to tell us about different events and commitments Gandhi made through out his life, fairly in depth. For example, Gandhi’s vow to brahmacharya, which goes beyond the commitment of chastity by not only eliminating any act of sexual intercourse within his life but also eliminating all sexual desires. This i found interesting. I am glad to have been able to gain new insight of both Gandhi’s life and Orwell’s perspective of it.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on May 8th, 2013 I feel like “Homage to Catalonia” is one of the less interesting pieces from all the essays we read so far. There was a lot of descriptions about Orwell being in the front line but actually doing nothing. Through this selection, I feel like even though Orwell participated in this war, he did not really approve of it. It seemed like that he was an outsider of the war, and did not belong to a side. I also found traces of him disapproving of war: “there was something of the evil atmosphere of war”, however this is contradicted as he later showed that he was bored of this war with no actual fighting.
We can also see how unorganized the militia was. He mentioned that nothing was ever on time, and everything is always said to be happened “manana”, tomorrow. They had no actual uniform, and the funniest part is that most of the soldiers are not suffering from injuries from the war, but from coldness or the harsh environment.
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by Linus (17) on May 7th, 2013 ‘Homage to catalonia’ tells of Orwell’s experience in the Spanish civil war. Through the piece Orwell very clearly depicts his thoughts towards war and the towards the other events that he was forced to face during the time. While reading this essay i was not as engaged as i usually am while reading a text. I felt my self immersed in my own thoughts and not paying attention to the text. Putting that aside i did find certain parts in the text quite amusing. For instance the militiamen’s recklessness with firearms and their lack of skill on the battlefield. I found it Orwell’s reaction after he left spain interesting. Most would expect as Orwell did, to feel a sense of relief and joy if stuck in their situation and getting away from that. But Orwell’s feelings were completely different, and i found this interesting.
I was disappointed to see that there was no description of Orwell being shot. I was anticipating the event as i think it would have been interesting to read what he thought of the event and maybe try to see how his memories may have been altered or exaggerated in an attempt to try to make the event make more sense to him.
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by Jarand (17) on May 6th, 2013 “Homage to Catalonia” was an interesting piece by Orwell, but it was a bit boring. I never thought that this would be boring, but I think that has to do with my lack of experience of civil wars. It is also partly hard for a writer to send the emotions through a piece of writing, and especially when it is about war.
I still enjoy reading Orwell and he was an amazing writer, but sadly I could not connect to his feelings through this time and that made this piece not as interesting for me.
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by Michelle (14) on May 5th, 2013 Last week we read ‘Homage to Catalonia’ by George Orwell. This essay is talking about Orwell’s experiences and observations in Spanish Civil War. Up to now all the essays I read by Orwell, all have something in common. Which is Orwells honest, direct and clear writing style. It is continually shown in this essay, the vivid descriptions of the barracks, environment and clothing. It was interesting to find out antiquated objects used during the Spanish war. For instance: The ‘poron’ the purpose of this object is like a container, so they can keep water in it. Personally, I didn’t like this essay. It was boring at parts where Orwell was describing the war.
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by Sabrina (17) on May 5th, 2013 Honestly I found the essay i’ve been reading recently which is “homage from catalonia” by George Orwell, very long and boring. I didn’t feel as if anything struck me as interesting or exiting. The essay made me feel angry and uncomfortable because i’m very against war, Orwell proved to me how pointless war is by the way he spoke about the children! Children who do not know right from wrong nor how to handle a gun because they are too young and are being put into the war as fast as possible because they are losing the real army men. I found this essay disturbing and would not read it again, the essay was too drawn out and I felt like I was just reading a timeline or a history book. I was disappointed with the essay where as I started reading it thinking this was going to be my favorite.
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by Linus (17) on May 1st, 2013 In this essay Orwell tells of the life of miners and the hardships they go through as miners. The piece was interesting and i found myself highly engaged in the text. Orwell describes to us his experience of going within a mine and witnessing the life of a miner. Mining is still considered a very dangerous career. Orwell described the mine to be what he expects to be the equivalent to hell. I found this interesting because it gives the reader an insight into Orwell’s perspectives and thought process.
It was an interesting piece and i think Orwell did a really good job of putting the hardships and difficulties of a miner into perspective. Thus, allowing the reader to develop new sympathy and understanding of the people who pursue this dangerous career.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 30th, 2013 This selection talks about Orwell’s time as a coal miner. He immediately tells us that it is not an easy job at all. “All those times the place is like hell. Most of the things one imagines in hell are there- heat, noise, confusion, darkness, foul air, and, above all, unbearably cramped space.”
Reading this selection makes me think about where our luxury comes from. Most of us don’t even think about coal when we enjoy the privilege of using electricity, heating. “The machines that keep us alive, and the machines that make the machines, are all directly or indirectly dependent upon coal.” We often take everything for granted, and we never knew that the origin of our comfort came from this ‘hell’. This selection also makes me think about how unfair life is, some people get to enjoy all the luxury while some people need to do all the hard work to provide that luxury just because they are poor.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 30th, 2013 This selection mainly talks about the Orwell’s experience in a hospital for poor people in Paris. He talks about how ‘inhumane’ they treat patients in the hospital. During his time in Hospital X, he describes the hospital as “just as in prison or the workhouse”. The hospital is a very poor place with limited resources and lazy staff. “The gravel path was frosty underfoot, and the wind whipped the nightshirt round my bare calves.” Normally, hospital is a place where the sick people are well looked after, and where the nurses try their best to accomodate their needs. However this shows that the hospital does not even provide the basic needs like clothes. “frosty” and “bare” suggest that it is very cold.
When it is Orwell’s turn to get treatment, he instantly felt that there was no say for the patients at all. “A few feeble protests that I uttered got no more response than if I had been an animal.” It seems like the patients were all treated as animals, this might be because of the huge number of patients the hospital needed to look after.
This essay overall shows that the poor were all treated very unequally. Also the fact that most of the patients in the hospital find the horrible conditions almost comfortable further proves that there are even poorer people.
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by Michelle (14) on April 30th, 2013 In ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ by George Orwell it talks about the importance of coal. How coal is the main component of development in a country. It is about the difficulty of mining and horrible conditions in the mine. It conveys the message that we should appreciate the hard work of those miners and not take them for granted. Orwells vivd descriptions of the working conditions of the mine horrifies me. The descriptions of the miners make me sympathies with them. It made me feel how lucky I am. It also made me question whether is it right to let them just sacrifice and risk their lives so we can have a better life. Mining is a manual labor and is essential to our life, but it is seen as inferior and get little credit for their work. It makes me reflect how we should be satisfied and appreciate people no matter their social position.
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by Michelle (14) on April 29th, 2013 Last week during English we read ‘How the Poor Die’ by George Orwell. It was a very interesting essay, it talks about how the poor die. In this essay Orwell wrote clear descriptions of the hospital layout and daily routines. Also, Orwell writes about his inner thoughts and his opinion towards how people were treated in the hospital X. The description of Hospital X were mostly negative, Orwell seemed to be criticising the hospital, how the patients were treated terribly. The word choice used to describe Hospital X shows that the conditions were terrible such as ‘beds surprisingly close together. There was a foul smell, fecal and yet sweetish.’ Orwell wrote vivid descriptions on how the patient in Numero 27 died with no one being there for him. How that patient died alone without anyone noticing until hours later. ‘This poor old wretch who had just flickered out like a candle end was not even important enough to have anyone watching by his deathbed.’ This sentence conveys to us Orwell’s opinion and feeling toward this patient. The writing style for this essay again is very honest and forward. This essay conveys to us how terrible the conditions were in Hospital X and how people who are sick don’t even want to go to the hospital they rather stay home. ‘a hospital is popularly regarded as much the same thing as prison’, Orwell states that hospitals was a place of torture than a place for treatment.
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by Tal (10) on April 29th, 2013
Before reading this essay, by only looking at the title, as I see it, it could mean two things. The first is that someone that was poor and Orwell knew, died, and the other is that Orwell is telling how this stage in his life, of experimenting how it is like to be poor “died”, and that he is back to being him. Maybe it is about how Orwell got so ill he had to go to the hospital, where he was treated properly and changed to his old life style.
Yet after reading this essay, I realized that these two assumptions were wrong.
Orwell writes about hoe he was ill, and went to the hospital, where for my opinion, was treated like an animal. The doctors and the one future to be, did not care about the human being at all. They had zero interest in the suffering human being, all they cared about is that they were poor, therefore it was not necessary to give them a proper treatment.
It was shocking for me to read about how the prisoner that prefers to be back in prison than staying in the hospital.
A hospital is meant to be a place where people feel safe and equal to one another. It might not be a place where people would like and spend their time there, but it shouldn’t be a place where people don’t want to go at all cause.
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by Jarand (17) on April 28th, 2013 George Orwell explains the living of a miner. Throughout this excerpt Orwell tells us how it is being a miner, and how painful and dangerous their job really is.
“Here is this frightful business of crawling to and from, which to ant normal person is a hard day’s work in itself; and it is not part of the miner’s work at all it is merely an extra, like the City man’s daily ride in the tube.”
In this quote Orwell tells the truth about the way miners work, since he has been down in the mines himself. People forget what miners put them through, when they are in the mines. Coal is a non-renewable recourse, which means that, when we have dug it up it’s gone.
“When you think of a coal mine you think of depth, heat, darkness, blackened figures hacking at walls of coal; you don’t necessary think of creeping to and fro.”
Here Orwell describes what a “City man’s” illusion of a coalmine is. Miners have to breath the coal-dust everyday and have barely enough money to wash once a week; and they also eat very little. The miners may eat a thin slice of bread with a thin slice of cheese on.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 28th, 2013 This past weekend I’ve been reading an essay By George Orwell called “From ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’”. I have already read past of it for IGCSE which was “Down The Mine” and since I had analysed it with my class mates back then it made it easier to read. I found this essay interesting because it shows how the real life of a miner is. I find it that if I would describe a miner I would describe what he looks like, However I don’t actually know what they do or how much they actually suffer being in the mines. The miners do not get credit for what they do for humanity which is provide us with electricity and fuel for our cars. I love the way he describes in this essay even though this is not a topic i’m engaged in. I found the quote “When they are black and naked they all look alike.”(pg.150) very interesting because I don’t think Orwell was trying to be racist at all, I don’t even think he was talking about “black people” In general but it seemed as a very strong quote. Honestly I found this essay disturbing but powerful by the words Orwell used.
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by Linus (17) on April 25th, 2013 How the poor die is a great representation of Orwell’s non-sympathetic writing style,displaying a fair amount of death and suffering. The setting in the hospital allowed Orwell to express his discomfort with hospitals and also allowed to readers to discover or be reminded of their own discomfort with hospitals. Who would likes hospitals? They’re filled with dying a diseased people coughing up they’re sickness. The thing that struck the most was when patient 57 died and Orwell just stares at him, describing the corpse with a fair amount of detail and depicting some sort of fascination with the dead, which i think indicates that death doesn’t bother him maybe as much as it would other people, and i think this part of his personality is greatly reflected in his writing.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 24th, 2013 This essay talks about the period of time in Paris when Orwell was actually poor. He was so poor at one point that he couldn’t even afford food for a couple of days. It is very interesting to see that in the beginning, he tried to pretend that everything was all right. “But of course you dare not admit it-you have got to pretend that you are living quite as usual.” Even though he only had six fracs at that time, he tried to go to restaurants to buy food and drink, and sometimes go to the barber just ‘to keep up appearance’. He was still not very used to being this poor, being unable to do anything. “Everywhere there is food insulting you in huge, wasteful piles…” He felt ashamed to be poor at this point, that he could not even afford the most basic thing, food.
He kept going like this for so long, but eventually he found a job as a waiter working in a hotel. From today’s point of view, it seems like a terrible job, but from his point of view, he was grateful that at least he got to feed himself again. “I was tired and drenched with sweat, but I felt a new man after a day’s solid food.” This implies that he was pleased as long as there is food for him, and also that he had been starving for a long time.
This selection is very special because it not only talks about Orwell’s own experience, but also people around him, and how they suffer from poverty. Even though at times life is really tough, you can always find a way to survive.
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by Jarand (17) on April 24th, 2013 It was interesting reading George Orwell’s essay “How the Poor Die”, since he this time was in a hospital. The interesting part about this excerpt is the way people used to look at hospitals and to be able to compare the hospitals in the 1930s with the hospitals from the modern days. People saw the hospitals as a place were people would die and not saved.
“A year or two later the celebrated swindler, Madame Hanaud, who was ill while on remand, was taken to the Hôpital X, and after a few days of it she managed to elude her guards, took a taxi, and drove to the prison, explaining that she was more comfortable there.”
With this quote it is ironic, since a prison is assumed to be bad, but a hospital that is worse? That is awful, and especially when a prisoner prefers to be in prison instead of the hospital have a funny and a serious aspect for the reader. It is hard for us to imagine how bad the living conditions were at this time. Not only the living conditions we assume that prisons are an awful place to be, but also hearing this story of a prisoner, who prefers prison instead of being in the hospital is unbelievable. Not only for the reader, but just the way it were back then. It is really hard to believe this story.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 24th, 2013 Recently I have been reading an essay by George Orwell named “How the Poor Die”. Orwell criticized how the poor lacked access to health care, which is still happening in our daily life. I thought it was interesting how brutally people were treated in the hospitals and how if they needed training they did it on the poor without a high power as supervision. I found this essay very interesting and admired the way Orwell wrote in it, how he was very detailed and it was as if you were witnessing all these activities at the hospital in person. Orwell did not seem too please in being at the hospital in france which I found very clear. Honestly this was one of the essays id found readable and I found that so far i’ve only actually liked why I write and How the poor die. However I find his works pretty boring and stretched out, also his essays are very brutal and seem exaggerated.
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by Mr. MacKnight (13) on April 24th, 2013 Those interested in this question, which arises in light of some of Orwell’s remarks about Jews in ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ and other pieces he wrote earlier in his life, should have a look at these links:
1. Orwell’s essay on anti-Semitism in Britain: http://orwell.ru/library/articles/antisemitism/english/e_antib
2. DJ Taylor writing in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2002/aug/13/biography.highereducation
Besides the particular question of Orwell’s own sentiments, one can learn from these pieces a great deal about how common anti-Semitism was in the first half of the 20th century—not just in Germany or Poland or Austria, but across Europe, including France and Great Britain, and in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Understanding how common and widespread it was, we can then make more sense out of the Allies’ relative lack of interest in the Nazis’ persecution of the Jews, even after the existence of the extermination camps became known in the West. And then, circling back to Orwell, we won’t be so surprised to find that in his earlier years he made anti-Semitic remarks. Rather we would be surprised if, given his background, he had not been prejudiced against Jews, when just about everyone around him was.
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by Tal (10) on April 23rd, 2013 This essay was a pretty long essay. It talked about the “bad days” Orwell went though, the days of living “out of six francs a day”. Orwell wanted to see how the poor people actually lived, what they were wearing and what were they eating. Therefore he decided to leave his money in London and go and experience this sort of life.
When he was living a poor life, looking for a job like any other person, with no experience and no ‘family name’ to help him, he realize how hard it was. After looking for a job for a period of time, and then finding an open job as a dishwasher, the only reason he was given that job was because he was “an Englishmen”.
Orwell wrote about “a Jew” three times this essay. The first one was on page 54 at the very bottom. “The shop man was a red-hared Jew, an extraordinary disagreeable man, who used to fall furious rages at the sight of a client….”” merde! He used to shout, “you here again?”. The second one was on page 58,also at the very bottom. “For the last fortnight he had been living in this roon, together with a Jew, a mechanic. It appered that the Jew owed Borris three hundred francs, and was repairing this by letting him sleep on the floor and allowing him two francs a fay for food.”
The third time, was on page59, fifth paragraph, “besides, the Jew tells me he is going to steal some magnetos from the garage where he works, and he will pay us five francs a day to clean then before he sells them”
These three times Orwell wrote about Jewish people made me feel like he is being a little anti-Jew. Like all the Jews he met were a kind of mad, if it was not being friendly at all, or owing more then one can return back or even if it was to steal to that one could re-sell it after for more money. When reading these three times about jewish people, it made me a little irritated and upset, mostly being because of the simple that I am jewish. It felt like when other people read this book, without knowing real Jewish people they will have this netative point of view about Jewish people.
One of the things that an author tries to do it to change the opinion of people, and I think that this is a classic example. Maybe Orwell did this deliberately and maybe not, but I think that some of the readers that read this essay thought different about Jewish people.
Orwell experiences how it’s like to really be poor, how it is like to going for a day or two with no food at all. Or how its like to be 100% dependent on a job, knowing that if one will have no money to pay rent.
It was very interesting to see what he thought about this whole situation. He said that being poor makes life so mush easier. When I first read this sentence I was like: “what?!?! How does that make any sense?” it is only how when I read the same line over and over when I realized that it actually makes sense. Rich people need to worry about what car they are going to buy or what they will wear to the charity event nest month, and on the other hand, poor people don’t even think about it, all they worry about is how to get through this exact day, they don’t worry about tomorrow, they will worry about tomorrow when it comes.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 23rd, 2013 Recently i’ve read “Down and Out in Paris and London” by George Orwell. At first I wasn’t very engaged in the essay therefore I didn’t understand really what was going on, at first I found the essay to just be another task and I found it boring. However I realized that the essay was about Orwells’ experience with tramps and the poverty in Paris and London in the 1920′s. He lived with them on equally and suffered the same hardness of the everyday life.
Orwell shows compassion for the the poor and feels that society is very unfair in their criticism and judgment of the tramps and beggars that went around the streets, which I found inspiring of him. Orwell feels that beggars and tramps have unfair labels and stereotypes attached to them. For example, most people think of tramps as being dirty, disgusting and everything bad. I found this essay a little more interesting because I could see how that could be true and i’ve been in a situation where me and my mother did not have the best neighborhood or much money. This essay was long and a bit boring but I understood the content.
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by Tal (10) on April 23rd, 2013 A Hanging was a short essay, and it talked about about how Orwell was one of the guards that took a prisoner from the prison to be hanged. I was reading this essay it make me feel sad, especially when the prisoner kept saying “Ram” “Ram” “Ram”, it felt so real. I personally don’t agree with death penalty, therefore I didn’t feel like it was ok to go and hand someone, even they were criminals.
I believe that the reason why Orwell wrote the description so detailed is simply because this wasn’t a normal ‘day job’ for him, it wasn’t something that happened often for him, therefore it was an event that he could not forget even if he wanted to.
At one point Orwell writes: “one of us would be gone-one mind less, one word less.”(Page 11 4th stanza last lines). I found this sentence very powerful. It was really like life and death dependent on that sentence.
Also, before the prisoner was hanged, there were two things that made us think of the prisoner not as a criminal but as human as everyone else. The first was the dog, when he kept spraying to his god he repeated “Ram” for a while, and the dog “answered the sound with a whine. The other was the puddle, the prisoner did not step on the puddle, and instead he walked around it. These two factors are very human, we do them very naturally., cry to help when we need it, and don’t do something unless we really need to.
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by Linus (17) on April 23rd, 2013 Down and out in Paris and London was a engaging read. Orwell tells of his experiences in Paris and portrays it to us from his perspective. He depicts the difficulties he went thought during the time, when he underwent poverty for the first time. One thing i’ve noticed in most of these essays is that they are all very detailed. Orwell is able to describe his feelings and emotions as well as different events in great detail giving the readers a clear perspective of the situation.
His description of poverty is very interesting. He explains that people who don’t have money, don’t worry as much. He describes poverty as something much more simple than what people would usually think. His portrayal of Paris is also interesting. He portrays the less wealthy part of paris, which would normally not fit a persons schema of paris.
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by Michelle (14) on April 23rd, 2013 ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ is about the experience of casual labour in restaurants in Paris and poverty. Yet again, Orwell’s writing style in this essay is very honest and true. Orwell doesn’t hide his flaws and failures. It is clearly stated in his essay such as he was unemployed. I really like the quote: “Within certain limits, it is actually true that the less money you have, the less you worry.”. This quote makes sense if you think about it. It shows how money can corrupt people and make humans greedy.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 23rd, 2013 This selection is particularly interesting because it is written in highly descriptive language. Orwell was working as a police officer in Burma during that time so he had the opportunity to witness a hanging. I feel like even though his post as an officer who should be agreeing these hangings, his thoughts reveals that he is not that biased against the hanging. The part that he describes the prisoner portrays the liveliness in the prisoner. “At each step his muscles slid neatly into place,… he stepped slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path”, this is so descriptive that it creates a sense of sympathy which might suggest that Orwell himself also felt sympathy towards the prisoner. Later he reveals his feelings about ending a life, “the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide”. This shows his inner thoughts which contrasts with what his post as a officer should be.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 22nd, 2013 This selection talks about Orwell experience of shooting an elephant in Burma. In the beginning of this selection, he talks about his hatred for the Burmese as well as for the British Empire.
“I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible.”
He found his emotions very perplexing and confusing because he learned the truth about ‘the dirty work at closed Empire’, and he certainly does not agree. But because of his race, the Burmese also hate him.
The incident that happend later about an elephant destroying properties and injuring people results in him taking control. It is very funny because in the beginning, he only asked for a rifle for self-protection, but he soon realized that all the people around him expected him to shoot the elephant. By the time they found the elephant, he knew that it had already calmed down and had no danger to anyone anymore. However because of the huge crowd that was behind him, waiting to watch the elephant get shot then get the meat, he could only shoot it.
Again, there were two different thoughts going in his head. He knew he was legally right to have killed the elephant, however his conscience told him that it was the wrong thing to do. In the end, the reason he did it was ‘solely to avoid looking like a fool’.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 22nd, 2013 The title of this selection is ironic, because we learned that Orwell hated the school he attended and did not enjoy his childhood at all. In this selection, he writes about how he started as an innocent boy in Congress, and during his school years, he learned more and more about society during that period.
One main idea that comes out repeatedly is how people are distinguished by poor and the rich. He discovers that in his school, the rich are always treated better because of their higher social status. ”All the very rich boys were more or less undisguisedly favored… The rich boys had milk and biscuits in the middle of the morning…. and above all they were never canned.” This talks about how people from different classes are treated differently. The fact that it is ‘undisguisedly’ suggests that it was a very common thing to do, and also during that time, there is discrimination against middle class people. Orwell also was not able to have any cricket bats or birthday cake because he is told that “your parents wouldn’t be able to afford it”.
At first, he thought that all of these is true, he believes that it is what life is supposed to be. “I could never find my way into that paradise, to which you did not really belong unless you were born into it.” This was the period of time when he had concluded that no matter how hard you work, you can never be successful as the upper class. As he grew up, he slowly discovers that this might not be true, he finds that there are different other virtue which defines a person.
Overal, I found this selection almost like a selection from a biography. Orwell uses straightforward language to portray his honest personal thoughts, this is what makes it interesting.
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by Jarand (17) on April 22nd, 2013 When Orwell is in Paris he is encountering poverty, but it is interesting to read what Orwell went through in this large city. All his emotions are changing quite rapidly, through this excerpt, but it is a funny excerpt. Not only, due to the bad language of the French, but also it is a lot of irony that happens to him. What Orwell is describing in this excerpt is what could happen to anyone, who is trying his luck in big cities.
The only difference is that today people won’t work for ridiculous amounts of hours, like Orwell did. People today are going to work for 7 hours. Orwell might have exaggerated the amounts of working hour.
With this excerpt being a mixture of good and bad luck it makes total sense, since it is just how life works.
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by Jarand (17) on April 22nd, 2013 I enjoyed “A hanging”, since it was written with great detail. The way Orwell manages to describe, how the execution would happen is significant. The feelings of the people, Orwell manages to describe very well.
Orwell says what he felt during this period. “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” With this quote the reader realizes what it means with death penalty. Also taking away a healthy person, but must have done something really bad to get this punishment.
Orwell also makes the prisoner “human”, by letting a dog run up to him and walking around a puddle. With these scenes, Orwell makes the reader emphasizes with the prisoner for a moment until the prisoner is hanged. After the hanging we get to know, what Orwell went through at this time and it makes one think.
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by Linus (17) on April 22nd, 2013 A hanging by Orwell was a worthwhile read. It tells of Orwell still as an imperial officer leading a prisoner to his executioner. It is one of the shorter essays in the ‘The Orwell reader’, but also it seemed one of the most touching and emotional pieces within the book.
The most significant part of the essay was the dog. The happiness of the dog and it’s playfulness towards the guards and the prisoner brought a certain light towards the prisoner, allowing the reader another chance to analysis the prisoner and realising that he might not be the bad person most people would automatically assume that he his, resulting in the reader drifting away from their original thought of the prisoner. The puddle was also significant. As the prisoner steps around the puddle it humanizes him causing the reader to further expand their thoughts about the personality of the prisoner.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 22nd, 2013 Recently I read “A Hanging” by George Orwell. I thought this story had a dark mood to it and allows you to see how Orwell felt that day when he witnessed the hanging. As Orwell describes the events he sees you can tell how degraded he feels by seeing this man lose his life. He notices the way that the prisoners are treated so terribly. He notes many times that they are treated like animals. He describes their jail cells like animal cages. He says that when the guards try walk the prisoner out to be hanged that they hold on to him so tightly that
“it is like men handling fish which is still alive but may jump back into the water”
You can tell that Orwell pays attention to the details around him, which I like because details describes things to me so I can witness them too. He notices everything from the puddles on the ground to the color of the man’s skin in front of him.I think that it is interesting that Orwell seems to not realize the seriousness of the event until he sees that the man who will be hanged steps around a puddle. I think that Orwell doesn’t understand why he would avoid getting his feet wet when he is just going to be killed in a few minutes. That’s when Orwell realizes that a perfectly healthy human being’s life is going to be taken. He notes that all the organs in the prisoner’s body are still perfectly fine and working correctly. Orwell also thinks about how the man’s brain is still working, how it
“remembered, foresaw, and reasoned”
I like how Orwell comments on these thoughts because it gets the reader to think also. It seems as if he wants the reader to not just read what he is saying but actually think about it themselves so that they truly understand what he was feeling. Personally this story was interesting to me because I have never witnessed anything like it and I found it hard to believe. Also I found it hard to believe Orwell could witness this and relive it in his story
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by Michelle (14) on April 22nd, 2013 “A Hanging” is a short essay written by Orwell. It is about the description of the execution of a criminal and Orwell’s thoughts and feelings during the execution. Since, Orwell was a police, he had to supervise this execution. The descriptions in “A Hanging” were very detailed, every sound and movement was taken into account. The description of the criminal avoiding the puddle: ‘he slightly aside to avoid a puddle on the path’ is significant. It humanizes the criminal. Although he did something wrong, he is still human. For example if there was a puddle infront of you, you wouldn’t step on it right? So, he wouldn’t too. The use of the dog could imply different meanings for everyone. Orwell uses the dog to show that the criminal should have a second chance. As we all know, dogs are known as ‘a man’s best friend’, they are suppose to be loyal. Hence, the use of the dog again humanizes the criminal.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 22nd, 2013 Recently I’ve read the short story ” Shooting an Elephant” by George Orwell. The story was about courage, judgment, and peer pressure in a way. I found the story boring, pointless, and felt the story had no meaning and that it was just an experience. The story describes the kind of ignorance the town has to outsiders and anyone they do not “approve of”.The second paragraph describes very vaguely how he the narrator feels about his job choice, and his views on the village. He say
“
I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible”
The narrator not only is in a place where he hates, but he also hates the people he works with, and works for! The story line goes along to tell the tale of an elephant that needs to be killed, because it got out of the zoo and endagers the community. The story describes how the main character feels about himself and the pressures of the community. A showdown climaxes the storyline between the elephant and Orwell, and the entire village is there to witness and entice the main character. Honestly the content of the book sounds interesting however the book personally I found boring.
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by Tal (10) on April 19th, 2013 Shooting an Elephant was very interesting and enjoyable. the details were very specific and directs. He didnt leave the thing we dont want to hear in sife, he wrote everything. This helped imagining it as if we were really there. When reading this essay I thought that Orwell is racist, because he called the local “yellow people”. He also perferred to kill an inocent creature rather than facing the locals with his decision.
However,
After finishing reading this essay I realise that these are all things he did when he was young, and that he probably changed his point of views about this things, and when he wrote this, he didnt write what he whould of done at this moment, when is grew up and had a set thought. He wrote what he did in the past, when he was young and cared a lot about what other people thought of him, maybe when he wrote this he didnt care about it anymore.
So we need to take into account that this was written a long time after it happened.
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by Tal (10) on April 19th, 2013
It feels like he is feeling pity about himself. He keeps going on and on about how miserable and pitiful he was in his childhood times. This made reading this chapter kind of boring for me. Because at many parts of the chapter all I could think ‘ohh this is another part of a miserable part in his childhood’ I was waiting to read about the good parts, the good memories. It just felt like he wanted us to feel bad for him.
This chapter made me think that George Orwell has a negative perspective, that focus on the negative rather then the positive. I think that when writing this chapter he wrote it so many times that maybe, just maybe, the situation wasn’t as bad as it actually was.
This point of Orwell misery going on and on, helped me realize to understand that we, humans make stuff sound bigger then what it actually are. That its not really a good thing but it is a natural thing .
In one point of the chapter, he stops everything and says that the author, himself and other authors exaggerates when they write, they make it bigger then what it actually is. I found these few lines very ture and honest. This was the high light of this chapter for me.
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by Linus (17) on April 18th, 2013 Shooting an elephant was an enjoyable read. Orwell tells of the story when he was an imperial officer in Burma and was faced with a difficult situation of an escaped elephant rampaging around town. This essay really reflected on Orwell’s personality at the time. Of course when he wrote the essay he was a changed man and noticed and accepted the flaws he possessed in the past. Orwell writes the essay in the mind set that he admitted to have at the time, therefore showing us a clear reflection of his personality in the past, for example, the essay included a lot of racism, describing the people there as “yellow faces”.
When writing about the shooting of the elephant, Orwell admits to shooting it to avoid looking like a fool in front of all the many “yellow faces” who often tormented him. This is understandable considering Orwell’s childhood, where he had been faced with a lot of criticism. Therefore it is easy to understand why Orwell wanted respect to avoid reliving his childhood difficulties. Orwell description of the shooting of the elephant was with great detail, indicating a very vivid memory of the event on Orwell’s part. I believe that this is because Orwell regrets his actions and may think foolish of himself for killing the elephant just to avoid looking foolish, which may be considered immature.
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by Michelle (14) on April 17th, 2013 I found ”Shooting an Elephant” a very interesting essay, the style of writing in this essay is the same as the previous two selections “Such, Such were the Joys……” and “Why I write”.
The style of writing is very honest and direct, for instance: “I was hated by large numbers of people-the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.” This was the opening sentence for this essay. It is very catchy and vigorous. It states that the Burmans hate him because he is a police officer from Europe.
During this time period, the Europeans occupied Burma, hence Burmans hate Europeans. Burmans hatred for Europeans was shown through the football game they played together. Orwell was bullied and was baited. Since he was the police officer, the Burman tripped Orwell and the crowd laughed. Orwell knows why he is hated and accepts it somehow, but he is still angry. This is shown through his word choice ‘sneering yellow faces’.
It is funny how Orwell hates the Burman’s and yet still likes them. Also, Orwell seems to disapprove imperialism and feels sympathy towards the Burman, as their country is being ruled and taken over by Europe. Somehow I thought the elephant could be a metaphor for Europe, how Orwell wants the Burmans to get their country back, and the only way was to get rid of the Europeans. So, we can see how Orwell had some hesitations when he was going to kill the elephant, which could imply that he doesn’t know whether it is right or not to get rid of the Europeans.
Furthermore, it seems that Orwell is unsatisfied with his current life and he feels that he doesn’t belong in Burma. This is similar in “Such, Such Were the Joys…”, Orwell was unhappy with his life in Crossgates and he also didn’t belong there.
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by Jarand (17) on April 17th, 2013 I liked this chapter, since it tells us about the time Orwell works in the imperial police in Burma. This means that, the people of Burma don’t want to be ruled over by the British and that’s why they treat Orwell very poorly, since he is British. A consequence that the Burmese are treating Orwell badly is that he doesn’t like them either. With this sort of loop runs round everyday, an elephant starts going nuts, since he has the “must”. The chase is on, when Orwell finally finds the elephant there is a huge crowed that followed him, who wants to see him kill it. With this idea from the crowd Orwell feels pressured to kill the elephant and does, but it takes a long time to kill it.
With this paraphrase of the excerpt, Orwell is going through sometime in detail special things.
E.g. how he wants to stab a Buddhist priest in the guts with a bayonet.
He goes with the reader on the quest to find the elephant, but as mentioned it takes him a while to kill the animal. It’s interesting, since Orwell discusses with himself the “proper” way of killing an elephant, and I have no idea how to kill one. Which makes this excerpt different from the excerpts about his childhood.
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by Venus Cheung (13) on April 16th, 2013 This is a very special selection of “The Orwell Reader” because normally, we only read the texts and never really look right into the true reasons behind them.
From the beginning of the selection, we learn that George Orwell is not an ordinary person. “From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer.” This shows that he is a unique person because most people would not know what they should be when they were children. He also has a very different thinking then other children during his school years.
From his childhood, he tells us that he has a strong interest for writing stories, and I find it interesting that he actually has a strong interest in just the words as well. He enjoys just listening to the sound of the words, for example, the “hee” word instead of “he” made him so happy when he was young.
George Orwell also identifies the four main reasons why a writer writes. They are sheer egoism, aesthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. The first point, sheer egoism basically says that writers write because of fame. Him pointing out this point shows that he is a straightforward and honest person. He tells how his experience of him growing up slowly made him hates the authorities, then slowly develops his writing into political books.
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by Previous Users (339) on April 16th, 2013 I thought I was getting the the hang of analysis in English. I was filled with hope!…Mr Macknight ruthlessly crushed said hope, along with my self-esteem. I am starting to see beyond the plot though. I suppose that’s good. Oh WOE IS ME! WOE IS ME! WHY ART THOU SO CRUEL PAPER 1 AND 2?!?! It’s is quite good practice. However, if we do it over and over in class it can get quite frustrating without a break.
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by Michelle (14) on April 15th, 2013 Personally, I quite enjoyed ”Such, Such Were the Joys…”, because it portrays the idea where that no matter how much hardship you been through you will still overcome it and become successful. During this selection ”Such, Such Were the Joys…” it was clear that Orwell had a rough childhood, where the principal or headmaster favours the ‘rich’ children:
All the very rich boys were more or less undisguisedly favoured.
Both the leaders of the school, Sim and Bingo were unfair to Orwell due to his family background, he was in the lower upper class. Also, the writing style in ”Such, Such Were the Joys…” is very honest and it is true:
Whoever writes about his childhood must beware of exaggeration and self-pity.
This quote shows how honest Orwell is when Orwell was writing this piece, after giving the quote some thought it is actually right, as people we actually do exaggerate and self pity our childhood. For instant: I always complain that when I was young, my mother favours my older brother more. She buys him whatever he wants and so he got a whole basket of toys and brought it to the cashier and my mother bought them all and I was just standing beside him with empty hands because I wasn’t allowed to buy anything. But actually it was because every time I went to the supermarket I get a basket of stuff and my brother doesn’t buy any and that was his first time buying so many toys. So, there’s always 2 sides to a story, it depends on what the writer wants to convey. In this case, Orwell wants to show how he had such an unpleasant childhood.
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by Sabrina (17) on April 15th, 2013 Recently I read Such Such were the Joys by George Orwell, It was interesting to know how Orwell grew up and what he did. I thought it was strange that teachers favored other students, I despised Bingo because she seemed like a terrible person. Bingo’s husband Sim seemed alright at first but as the story went on I started to not like him too.
This story was both interesting and boring, I thought it was interesting to know how they had to get washed in filthy water and everything was so disgusting compared to todays life. It was interesting to know that it was such an old way to discipline the naughty boys by canning and spanking which is illegal today in most countries.
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Evidence The evidence for your argument consists of details from the text. If you do not refer to details from the text, then your argument will lack supporting evidence and will fail to persuade anyone.
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Important Dates •Y12 End-of-Year Exams: May 27-30
•Y12 Written Assignment first draft due June 20th.
Paraphrase + comments ≠ analysis!! Paraphrase + comments ≠ analysis!!
Paraphrase + comments ≠ analysis!!
Paraphrase + comments ≠ analysis!!
Paraphrase + comments ≠ analysis!!
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