George Orwell Wrote Non-Fiction, Too

Everyone knows George Orwell as the author of the dystopian novel 1984, and to a lesser extent the satirical Animal Farm. People love to read these books so they can begin to toss around terms like “Orwellian”, “Big Brother”, “Ministry of Truth”, etc. However, these books can be appreciated in a whole new light if one is familiar with Orwell’s three previous non-fiction works. Orwell had firsthand experience with being wanted by the police, watching propaganda campaigns at work, and being a nonperson working 17 hours a day. He was kind enough to write about it too, so we can get it from the horse’s mouth, as it were, instead of reading novels. A marvelous thing about his early work is the sense of perspective it brings, as it tells the unvarnished truth about the life of the poor in the relatively near past.

Down and Out in Paris and London is a tale of poverty. Orwell was robbed penniless and then masterfully relates the slow slide to near starvation, and what it does to a person. “You have talked so often of going to the dogs—and well, here are the dogs, and you have reached them, and you can stand it. It takes off a lot of anxiety.” Eventually he was able to find work as a plongeur, or dishwasher, a job that seems totally brutal by today’s standards—17 hour days of backbreaking work while being cursed by everyone—but at least it paid well enough to eat! After reading this book, I was a lot more appreciative of my daily life, and I could also see where the idea of the “proles” in 1984 came from, as the people Orwell was associating with had no time to do any thinking or self-improvement, it was work all the time just to avoid starvation.

Out of the trio of non-fiction books, The Road to Wigan Pier reads least like a memoir. It is more of a social commentary, and thus less riveting than the other two. It deals with the squalid living conditions in the north part of England, and it is really quite horrifying. Among other things, Orwell investigates the coal mines and gives a harrowing description of the dangers faced by the miners. You can tell he is genuinely disturbed by the terrible conditions and wants to alert others to the plight of the poor. That is the first part. The second part is a fascinating discussion about socialism. Orwell is personally in favor of socialism but does not shy away from brutally criticizing it. “As with the Christian religion, the worst argument for Socialism is its adherents.” This quote brings Christians into the crossfire, but you get the feeling that sadly it may not be too far from the mark in some cases.  

My favorite book by George Orwell is Homage to Catalonia, a real-life adventure story. In Barcelona to cover the Spanish Civil War, Orwell instead joined the militia on the side of the Republicans. He went into the trenches for months, enduring all the privations of war—hunger, lice, and boredom occasionally shattered by an attack. Returning to Barcelona from the trenches, Orwell was unhappily surprised to find the political situation utterly changed. Before, Barcelona had been a place of equality, with people calling each other “comrade” and “where the working class was in the saddle.” During his months in the trenches, society had redivided itself into rich and poor and there was internal discord, culminating in the May Days fighting, described by Orwell with his usual sardonic wit. Eventually Orwell returned to the front line, where he was shot in the neck and nearly died. Once again in Barcelona to recover, his militia group was the target of a propaganda campaign by the Communists and he wandered the streets and slept in the open air, afraid to return to his hotel lest he be unjustly arrested like many of his friends. Finally, he escaped and made his way back to England, ending his book with a prescient warning to his countrymen, who are “all sleeping the deep, deep sleep of England, from which I sometimes fear we shall never wake till we are jerked out if it by the roar of bombs.”

So why did I write this? I think there’s a lot to learn from Orwell, and even when I disagree with him, I still appreciate the sincerity that rings through his books. One of Orwell’s best qualities is a total commitment to the truth, a virtue in short supply these days. These books show the formative experiences that paved the way for 1984, but the difference is that, unlike 1984, they really happened and are very interesting to boot.

About the Author

Eric Woodman, Jr. is a student at Indiana State University.