George Orwell's Coming Up for Air
George Orwell’s novel, Coming Up for Air, portrays England at two different times. The story is based around George Bowling in 1939 and his life in the suburbs of London on Ellesmere Road, where all the houses are the same. He is very cynical of the world around him and dreams of his times as a child in Lower Binfield when things were not perfect, but not yet ruined by the Great War. The vision of 1900 England versus England in 1939 creates a sharp contrast in life for George Bowling. In 1939 England is on the verge of another war, and life is impersonal, harsh, and industrial. The reality of 1939 is only accentuated by George’s trip to his childhood home of Lower Binfield, where nothing is the same
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In his excitement about fishing he buys a new rod and all the necessary equipment to go fishing but decides to go and check out his old fishing spots before he actually fishes. The first spot he goes to is the Thames River where he is met with a surprise. When he arrives at the river he sees, “The place was black with people. And where the water-meadows used to be- tea-houses, penny-in-the-slot machines, sweet kiosks and chaps selling Wall’s Ice Cream. Might as well have been at Margate.” The stream where he had found solitude as a child was completely overrun with people. He could not fish in a place with the kind of commotion that would scare all the fish away. The river itself had also changed. The clear water he saw as a kid had become murky and brown. As a child he could fish all day by the river and not see another person. England had changed since he was a child. Crowds of people and a polluted river ruined his nostalgic view of fishing. England had grown and with the growth of the town came the destruction of nature.
Discouraged but not completely done with the idea of fishing he decided to go to find his other sacred fishing spot. This spot had suffered an even worse fate. The spot was located near the house at Upper Binfield (which had been turned into an insane asylum). Much to George’s dismay a new housing development had gone in by the pond he used to fish at. The pond itself had
Rather than name this young boy and immediately create barriers between the character and the reader, Crabtree purposefully leaves the boy as an ambiguous figure to represent any person. “The pond was a book of life with the boy as the learner,” the author states (Crabtree 72). While the pond, in this instance, represents all that is encompassed in life, the boy is seen as the object that is being taught. The young boy constantly goes to the pond alone, just as life is lived alone. He experiences many things on his solemn adventures to the pond. The journey made daily to the pond portrays everyday life as a choice, the boy chooses to enjoy and experience all that nature has to offer while others, such as his parents, choose to stay back and view life from a distance rather than experience it to the full.
George Orwell constructs his argument by explaining Gandhi's outlook on life and effectively does so by using informative tone, ethos, and logos. Throughout the passage, Orwell describes Gandhi's morals and shines light on the issues behind his reasoning. Orwell uses various personal examples from Ghandi to make an argument to push people to chose human imperfection rather than to strive for sainthood. He gets his point across by building off of Gandhi's experiences which he uses to his advantage to portray the issues more clearly to his audience.
“Homewaters of the Mind”, written by Holly Morris, is a personal narrative from an anthology named Another Wilderness. The narrator starts her story with details of an early morning and preparation for fishing. She then reveals a glimpse of her past, which explains her hobby, fishing, and a sense of disconnection from her father. Shifting back to present day, she struggles with fishing, prompting her to contemplate and admire the scenery. The narrative ends with the author wanting to reconnect with her father. The narrator masterfully utilizes this one fishing experience to illustrate the influence of nature and time on her mind.
With the start of World War II, George Orwell began his fight against Nazism, fascism, and communism. In the eyes of many, communism became interchangeable with socialism, and he criticized writers of his time that were in support of Stalin and his “socialist” movement: “Why should writers be attracted by a form of Socialism that makes mental honesty impossible” (qtd. in Lewis 76)? In an attempt to pacify the radical communist movements and change imperialism, he spoke of a third method to reform the British Empire—a middle ground that would create a socialist community in Britain. John Newsinger wrote, “[He had a] call for a new socialist movement that would reject both Communist-style revolution and Labour Party reformism in favour of a third way to socialism, a third way that he continued to call revolutionary but that was adapted to modern conditions” (qtd. in Chen). Through this, one can see that Orwell wanted to avoid such movements as communism, which attempted to obtain control over the individual, and yet he had a need to preserve the
The man is no longer a wide-eyed dreamer, but someone that exists in reality. Therefore, he can no longer view the pond as anything more than what it is, a
Mysticism in Cloudstreet becomes one of the key forces that drive each character’s search for meaning and self-acceptance. It is a beacon of hope represented through Fish’s awestruck perception of the water and the way this moulds his relationship with Quick. Fish’s constant repetition of ‘the water, the water,’ emphasises the importance of meeting the water once again to resolve his metaphorical ‘stuckness...Not the way all the living are stuck in time and space...but in another stuckness altogether.’
George Orwell's 1984 What look on humanity and human nature, if any, can be seen through this book, 1984?
1984, Orwell’s last and perhaps greatest work, deals with drastically heavy themes that still terrify his audience after 65 years. George Orwell’s story exemplifies excessive power, repression, surveillance, and manipulation in his strange, troubling dystopia full of alarming secrets that point the finger at totalitarian governments and mankind as a whole. What is even more disquieting is that 1984, previously considered science fiction, has in so many ways become a recognizable reality.
Things to know: 1984 was a book written about life under a totalitarian regime from an average citizen’s point of view. This book envisions the theme of an all knowing government with strong control over its citizens. This book tells the story of Winston Smith, a worker of the Ministry of Truth, who is in charge of editing the truth to fit the government’s policies and claims. It shows the future of a government bleeding with brute force and propaganda. This story begins and ends in the continent of Oceania one of the three supercontinents of the world. Oceania has three classes the Inner Party, the Outer Party and the lowest of all, the Proles (proletarian). Oceania’s government is the Party or Ingsoc (English Socialism
The Book 1984 was written by George Orwell shortly after W.W.II. I think this book really shows us what would happen if the government gets too powerful. It was written long ago and set in the future, but I feel like the message is still very relevant today.
Can a hero still be a hero although he succumbs to his weakness? What if he becomes the very thing he was against or want to eradicate? In our modern world, we find many examples of heroes in stories, movies, and even the news that usually have a positive connotation related to them, and many of their story arcs usually have a positive resolution, similar to the classic romantic stories long ago. The author George Orwell completely flips the notion of the classic hero on its head, but does it well enough that it makes us question what is a true hero.
Days without food, nights without shelter and clothes without buttons are reality for homeless people around the world. Many are incapable of escaping their poverty and can not seem to find a way out of their bleak oppression. The few that do escape often help each other find a way to make their lives better and do not forget how to maintain friendships. George Orwell’s novel, Down and Out in Paris and London, displays the ability of those in poverty to escape their horrific lot in life through friendships and connections. The common goal of shelter and freedom from oppression bonds many of the lower class. Many in poverty work together to find the best means to achieve their common
Many authors bring in the theme of politics into their work in order to make their creations more appealing and as a form of expressing their personal views. George Orwell’s “Nineteen Eighty-four” is a novel that contains many political messages to the world. Orwell felt that part of his role as a writer is to serve as a voice of conscience to our society by trying to express the truth as he saw it. The novel was written in a crucial time period in modern history after the Second World War and at the beginning of the Cold War. One can see that the book was influenced by current events of its time mixed with Orwell’s standpoint. He focuses on three major political issues that effect society, which are the dangers of war, class differences
The Road to Wigan Pier’, an autobiography written by George Orwell, was first published in 1937. The first half of this book documents Orwell’s observations about the poor living conditions amongst some working class families belonging to Yorkshire and Lancashire, in the period before World War Two had begun. In the second half, Orwell wrote a long essay about his own experiences in the book where he covered topics such as his middle-class upbringing, the developing ideas regarding his political conscience and also questions British attitudes towards socialism. As well as this, Orwell wrote about his own political beliefs about socialism and also explained how he felt that people would be able to benefit from socialism. Orwell addresses many issues that were prevalent during this period, allowing a historian to gain more of an insight about the impact that this had on people’s lives as well as beginning to understand the effects that this may have had on British society as a whole. In many ways, Orwell’s detailed and vivid descriptions allow a historian to see and understand British society from a different perspective. It can also be identified that to some extent the autobiography allows a historian to be able to begin understanding more about the ways in which British society had become divided during the wars and to be able to understand exactly how this can be shown throughout the text. Although there are many interesting and useful ways of interpreting this document
One of the main differences between Coming Up for Air and 1984 is that the former is concerned more with the ravages of capitalism, industrialization, and urbanization; whereas the latter is concerned more with totalitarianism and the failure of democracy. Another difference is that Winston in 1984, and eventually Julia also, completely distance themselves from the past. The past is being continually rewritten with the help of tools like the memory hole and the agencies like the Ministry of Truth and Ministry of Love. In fact, the memory hole in 1984 contrasts sharply with the "memory lane" nostalgia that encapsulates George Bowling's search for inner peace and identity. Yet both novels show that the past does not necessarily have a bearing on the future. The past controls Bowling's life,