The Road to Wigan Pier - George Orwell - Classic Literature The Road to Wigan Pier
In the 1930’s, George Orwell attempted to learn about the lives of the English working class. He had experienced this earlier, living as poorly as he could in Paris and London, but this focuses on the lives of miners in and around Wigan Peer.
Orwell uses vivid descriptions of miner’s life as a framework for discussions later in the book on socialism, his own childhood, and the hypocrisy of the middle and upper classes in England. He brings an "insiders" point of view although he was at all times able to walk away and therefore able to make choices the miners could not.
His view of the everyday life of the miners and their families are evocative. He describes a cheap rooming house and those who live there. As unemployment was high at the time, he writes of the life of the unemployed and perhaps unwittingly, of a class system that emerges among them, with women, children and the injured and elderly at the bottom.
Over and over, Orwell reflects on the situation of these people and wonders why it is allowed to exist. He looks at the situation through his own socialist philosophies as he writes about the dangers inherent in the job, the pitiful wages, and the poor diet. He wonders whether anyone is really interested in solving the problem, or if they even see it as a problem.
His observations about poverty and the working poor remain quite relevant today. He talks quite openly about the English society of the time, but also reflects honestly on the challenges facing socialism. It is a very involving and interesting review of life and politics of the time.
