It started well, though very grimly, in the Booker’s tripe shop cum boarding house in Wigan – probably a zero-star review on Trust Pilot!
Orwell’s conversational style perfectly sets a scene and brings people to life:
Mr Booker was a dark small-boned, sour Irish-looking man, and astonishingly dirty.
Mrs Booker was too ill to do anything except eat stupendous meals – a soft mound of fat and self-pity.
This chapter was very reminiscent of Down & Out in Paris and London which Orwell mentions later in the book.
Then onto Chapter 2 – the life of a miner and mining families. Orwell visits a mine and being a tall man has an immense struggle, bent low, walking to the coal face. He describes the 7-hour shifts of the miner in great detail, the stiffling heat, the naked bodies swinging picks, loading trucks, placing pit props hour after hour with only short breaks for cold tea and a bread & drpping sandwich. You are left with huge admiration for those super-tough men and their wives and families, and great anger that the labour fuelling the homes and factories of the country was so little valued, with most miners living in poverty.
And what a contrast between Orwell’s no holds barred realism to the romanticism of How Green Was My Valley.
But when I reached Chapter 3 and the minute examination of Wigan housing, I began to lose interest, simply because this was Wigan of the 1930’s and not the Wigan of today, and not the “working class” of today. True, our society faces similar issues, but the context is very different. The first part of The Road To Wigan Pier is so out-of-date that it is simply social history and no longer a rallying cry.
I only dipped into the second part which seems to far too verbose - I resorted to an AI summary of his main points and arguments - see below.
Note: I was completely out of step with the members of my book group who thought the book had lost none of its force for being written 90 years ago. The underlying themes were still relevant today.
Years ago, I read one of the seminal texts of the socialist movement – The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. This, together with my Methodist upbringing set my political home left of centre - “We are all in it together” and not “Everyman for himself”, and that is where I’ve stayed.
This little verse comes to mind:
It's the same the whole world over,It's the poor what gets the blame,It's the rich what gets the pleasure,Isn't it a bloomin shame?
I’ve recently read “Careless People” by Sarah Wynn-Williams which is an insider’s view of Facebook, showing how its founder and those in charge are almost totally devoid of any morality.
These are the kind of books we need to be reading if we are going to follow in the footsteps of George Orwell. But reading is one thing, and fewer and fewer people are reading, activism is another. Not many people are willing to get their hands dirty.
AI Overview of Part Two
Orwell asks a central question:Why do so many ordinary people fail to support socialism, even when socialism would seem to be in their economic interests?
His answer is that the problem is not only economic. Socialism has often been made unattractive by the behaviour, language and attitudes of many of its advocates.
The Reality and Injustice of Class
Orwell argues that the English class system is deeply ingrained and emotionally powerful. People do not think only in terms of money or reason; they are shaped by habits, prejudices, accents, education and social status.
He is particularly interested in the instinctive barriers that separate the middle class from the working class.
Economic reform will not succeed unless people recognise how deeply class prejudice affects everyday life.
A Defence of Socialism
Despite his criticisms, Orwell clearly supports socialism. He believes that capitalism has produced unnecessary poverty and inequality, and that society needs a more just economic system.
The evidence of industrial poverty described in Part One makes some form of socialism morally necessary.
Criticism of Socialists
Orwell argues that many potential supporters are driven away by the image of socialism presented by some middle-class intellectuals and activists. He caricatures the "crank" socialist: the sandal-wearer, vegetarian, health enthusiast, or doctrinaire theorist who seems disconnected from ordinary people.
His point is not that these people are bad, but that they make socialism appear eccentric and unattractive.
Socialism loses support when it becomes associated with fashionable intellectual causes rather than the everyday needs of workers.
The Dangers of Ideology
Orwell is sceptical of rigid political doctrine, particularly versions of Marxism that claim to explain everything.
He argues that many socialists pay too much attention to theory and too little to how real people think and feel.
Political movements fail when they ignore human psychology and culture.
Industrialism and Modernity
Orwell worries about the implications of an increasingly mechanised society. Even while supporting social reform, he questions whether endless industrial development automatically means progress.
He fears a future in which efficiency and machinery dominate human life.
Theme: Material progress alone does not guarantee a better society.
The heart of Part Two is a paradox:
Orwell believes socialism is necessary, but he believes many socialists have made it harder for people to embrace socialism.
He wants a socialism that is:democratic, humane, patriotic rather than doctrinaire,
rooted in ordinary experience, concerned with decency and justice rather than abstract theory.
In many ways, Part Two is the bridge between the social observer of The Road to Wigan Pier and the political writer who would later produce Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In one sentence
Part Two argues that socialism is necessary to address poverty and inequality, but that the British left often alienates the very people it hopes to help because it fails to understand class, culture and ordinary human attitudes.
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