Book Reviews, Comments & Stories, Quotes, & Poetry & More
"Connections and Why They Matter"
Most of what happens in our life will spark a connection. Life connects with what has been found in books. Books connect with what happens in life. Use the connections to help you see more clearly. A love of reading and writing is what motivated the creation of this blog. Thank you for coming to the blog.
(See the “Taking others for Granted” article in the Positive Thoughts section for more on what the Meaning of this Book is?)
It is 1933, and it will be 10 + years before Orwell publishes Animal Farm and 1984, both of which will warn of the dangers of totalitarianism and promote his beliefs in a fairer society. In his book, Down and Out in London & Paris, he writes about poverty and how he survived.
Orwell was a tutor in London, but he went to Paris. He has no job when he arrives, and he cuts back on food and later pawns his good clothes to get by for a few days. He finds an old friend Boris, a fat Russian, but he is also out of work. They struggle for weeks, and eventually, the two of them finally do find work-Boris as a waiter and Orwell as a dishwasher. Find work- Boris The dishwashing job is 14 hours a day of cleaning in the sweltering heat of kitchens on the bottom floors of the hotel basements.
Orwell's Paris experience with poverty was eating at restaurants, living in rented rooms, and working in almost prison-like circumstances; no mention is made of goals or desires. He can see that there are few opportunities to rise above where one starts in life. He describes drinking on a Saturday night as the "one thing that made life worth living.” At one point, a murder happens right outside where he is sleeping, and he tells us that within three minutes, he has gone back to sleep, not wanting to waste time over it.
Boris talks Orwell into going to another hotel to work because of the promotion to maître d’ he can get. Orwell follows him, but the new kitchen, where he is still a dishwasher, is even more hot and cramped than before. He now works 18 to 20 hours a day and makes less. Finally, he is so demoralized that he returns to London, which comprises the book's second part.
Orwell describes London’s poor as mobile, unable to rent or stay in a job long, but forced to wander from shelter to shelter across London. When he arrives back in London, his plans to be a babysitter for a wealthy family fall through. He has no money and must pawn his best suit again. He finds that he must join others wandering from shelter to shelter and living off food that is barely fit for human consumption, living as a beggar and a tramp. The hunger and filth are with him constantly, and he feels the challenge of being considered disagreeable to others.
When the book ends, Orwell can get the job he had initially planned. His closing remarks are that poverty is a condition best to be avoided.
This book will add to how you see George Orwell's books Animal Farm and 1984. This autobiography precedes those books and suggests how his viewpoint on society may have evolved.
Quotes by George Orwell
“It is curious how people take it for granted that they have a right to preach at you and pray over you as soon as your income falls below a certain level.”
“The stars are a free show; it doesn't cost anything to use your eyes.”
“Within certain limits, it is true that the less money you have, the less you worry.”
“It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.”
“Dirt is a great respecter of persons; it lets you alone when you are well dressed, but as soon as your collar is gone, it flies towards you from all directions.”
