Book Review: The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

This book review provides an overview of The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. It explores the background of the author, the methodology used, and the legacy of the book. The review focuses on the living conditions of the working class and the impact of socialism. It is a valuable resource for understanding social aspects and the importance of the book.

Health and Social Care
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The Road to Wigan Pier
George Orwell
Report

Table of Contents
2INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................................................4
3CONTEXT OF BOOK..................................................................................................................4
4THE AUTHOR..............................................................................................................................5
5BACKGROUND & PERSPECTIVE............................................................................................5
6METHODOLOGY & METHODS ...............................................................................................6
7BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BOOK...................................................................................................7
8THE LEGACY OF BOOK ........................................................................................................8
9CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................9
10REFERENCES .........................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Book review is a kind of literature review where researcher gives an overview of the
selected topic. Book review will be done on the basis of primary source, summary or review or
scholars, opinion of other (Amundsen, 2016). Main aim of review is to provide the central idea
of the book help the readers to understand about the material or topic which describe in the
books. It further indicates the style, premises, approach or overall evaluation.
Purpose of this report is to show the wider research in academic point of view and ensure
that students will understand the various social aspect of the book. In order to review the book of
“ The Road to Wigan Pier ” by George Orwell, students need to use appropriate supporting
material for the further review rather than book. This book review explores various aspects such
as background of author, overview of book, what was the methodology & methods used by the
authors at the time completing book. In addition, what was the legacy of book which they served
to the society.
CONTEXT OF BOOK
“The Road to Wigan Pier” is written by the English author George Orwell. This book
published in 1937 and the initial content of this book is about the sociological investigations that
means author study the whole society, pattern or social relationship of people, social interaction,
culture etc. This book based on the social science where George Orwell implements the various
methodology of empirical investigation and critically analyses the social body, accept and
change the social evaluation. First half of the book is about the hopeless living condition of
working class of Lancashire (It is country in North West England). Second half book is the long
essay about upbringing of middle class people and his political conscience which impact the
development of individuals as well (Amundsen, M., 2016).
According to Orwell, many people are in support to the socialism but they need to give
specific reasons why they support and what benefit they get from socialism (Babb, 2017). Genre
of this book is Autobiography and it is related to the United Kingdom and “The Road to Wigan
Pier” published by Victor Gollancz (London) that is left club major book publishing house of
12th century. This publishing house established in 1927 by Victor Gollancz and they are
specialised in publishing high quality literature. There are lot of similar books in the market
which is based on socialism such as “The Lion and the Unicorn” by Shirley Hughes. In this book

author focus on the situation of society, culture of UK and other political factors which impact
the whole society as well as socialism.
THE AUTHOR
George Orwell was an English novelist, critic and journalist. This the pen name of writer
because actual name of this author is Eric Arthur Blair. He was born on 25th June 1903 in
Motihari, Bihar, British India which is now known as East Champaran, Bihar. He died on 21st
January 1950 at the age of 46 in University collage hospital in England UK.
Orwell produce the poetry, literary criticism, fiction and polemical journalism, in addition
he is best known for the allegorical novella that is “ Animal Farm”. Non fiction books such as “
The Road to Wigan Pier” here author describe his personal experience as working in the north
England as middle class life (Crawley, 2016). Along with this, Orwell critically respected for his
essay on the topic of politics, language, culture or literature.
In 2018, George Orwell announced as “ The best 50 greatest British writer since 1945 ”.
Orwell work influence the various aspect of the society such as popular culture or political
culture. It includes the group of sociality, set of beliefs, practices and the object which influence
the society at certain point of time. Government behaviour, their rules & regulations for the
country also affect the people and their sentiments. Actual name of George Orwell is Eric Arthur
Blair and they actively focus on their work from 1928 to 1950.
There are some notable work which is done by the George Orwell that is range of books
which they published and get the huge apparition for that. Such as Animal Farm, Nineteen
Eighty Four, Homage to Catalonia, Down and Out in Paris & London and The Road to Wigan
Pier. Eric Arthur Blair has two wife, first one was Eileen O'Shaughnessy and the second & last
wife was Sonia Brownell who died in 1949. In 1928, George Orwell start his career as a
professional writer at start from the journal which owned by the French Communist Henri
Barbusse and it is situated in Paris.
BACKGROUND & PERSPECTIVE
According to author, socialism is very important for the every class and they need to
aware about the condition of other class of people. As mentioned in their book, middle class
people are the main focus and their living conditions as well (Dell, 2018). Implication of
socialism is the society will help in nationalization of key industries such as coal mining, energy,

transportation, steel etc. labour class people who work very hard in this industry for the national
benefits. With the help of this book, people able to aware about the living condition of middle or
lower class people. Specially the workers who work as coal minor, these people and other
industrial workers as well who working hard to earn decent life. They face many challenges at
the time of working, so society and the nation wide people should be aware about their situation.
As per authors view point, lower class people and their lives such as coal miners and now
they all are disappeared due to de - industrialisation or the deed of 1980s & 1990s that is
unmemorable. Orwell said, “ I am not labour and God please I am shall be the one, but yes, there
are few things which I wanted to do if I had to. But there is no possibility that I become a coal-
miner because it is such as hard working work that would kill me sure in few weeks".
Main purpose of this book is to make people aware about the condition of middle as well
as lower class people. This book help the people to understand the living condition or how they
survive or struggle with daily challenges (Goodson, 2016). This book inform the social or
historical reality of economic depression that is suffering by north England. Many people
criticise the book such as Douglas Goldring, it is one of the English writer who describes that
book is "beautiful" and "disturbing". Other than that, Miles is the another writer which also
highly recommended that conservatives and socialists is the essential concept as well as issue of
our society which needed to read it once. On 12th of March 1937, Walter Greenwood said that
Part I of the book was "authentic and first rate” along with this, Part II provoked on the far side
strength the next generation. As per Walter Greenwood point of view, “ I cannot remember that
I am this kind of angry for long time after reading the book and the condition of lower & middle
class people of our country ”.
METHODOLOGY & METHODS
George Orwell implement the Experimental Ethnographic that is a method which used
by the authors for the social program and for the study of society. In this methodology, author
use the qualitative method where they collect the information and evaluate with the real life
environment. Ethnography was the best -selling by anthropology but it is implemented across the
wider range of social sciences (Lia Rahmadani, 2015). This methodology implemented by the
George Orwell where they start observing problems from the root cause. For the effective
analysis, it includes the relevant components such as audience, fieldwork process, domain, goals
of research, usage and implementation etc.

Main aim of this methodology is to get “ Under the Skin ” where author have to collect
all the evidence or information by themselves and use all of them according to their research. It
is hoped that, with the help of this study, researcher able understand all the problems or find the
suitable solutions as well. Anthropological ethnographers mostly used for the group or society
and it will take more than a year for study (McQuade, 2014). In addition, without field process it
is impossible to get the finding or able to present data.
Author of “ The Road to Wigan Pier ” George Orwell, use this methodology for the study
of society and the identity the major issues which affect the people as well as entire society as
well. With the help of this methodology, Orwell find that socialism in the major missing factor in
our community because lower or middle class people done more handwork and they does not
getting sufficient pay for that. These are those people who hard so hard just to survive their life
and in return they get nothing more.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BOOK
“The Road to Wigan Pier” is divided into two chapters where first part describe the
Brooker family and they related to the wealthy society in comparison to the poor once. In the
first part of this book, author describe the upbringing of middle class people and this story based
on Mr & Mrs Brooker who are already pensioners and further they earn through providing
lodging house facilities to the unmarried people. Orwell already spend some couple of weeks in
this house at the time of their research. In the second chapter of this book, Orwell describe the
life of miners who working so hard to earn money to satisfy their basic livelihood. They work
underground in the very bad condition, where working temperature is too hot, with minimum
space, dusty as well as dangerous for their life (McQuade, 2015). Coal miner have to handle
dynamite and tunnels are not stable. So George Orwell describe that how he manage or wend
down to see coal miners working condition and the place where coal dismantled. In addition, it
include the many chapters which describe the working situation of middle class people and how
they survive in the society through working so hard. There are total six chapters in the first part
and all are about the middle class family who work hard to meet their daily expenses of feed
their family.
In the second part of this book “ The Road to Wigan Pier ” is about the personal
experience and opinion regarding socialism. George Orwell think that communism or socialism
are no longer movement for the middle class people. In Britain, it is not possible to identify the

class of individual by looking their income. But, in England tradition play the most important
role where they find that middle class people have 2000 pound income annually and it down to
300 pounds in a year. According to the Orwell, these people struggling with their life to live
gentle lives. Colonials are the very much attractive people of social class, they are those people
who earn enough amount as in England because they are in administration or army job
(Rizvanbegovic, 2018). These people can afford servant and other facilities which make them
gentlemen in the society. There are various barriers which can be removed such as class hatred,
difference in education, religious haters, moral code, temperament etc. but the physical
reputation cannot. George Orwell criticise for the middle class communists and the socialism
who speak against their own class but they behaviour or manner as middle class people.
Basically, George says that socialism is almost impossible thing.
Because Orwell is the centre of this story, so he face the challenges of mutual
understanding among the people which generate the greatest dilemmas in the current time period.
George Orwell reflect the importance of social or political issues which describe in the book of “
The Road to Wigan Pier ”. Author feel the real experience through observing coal minors in the
tunnels and their hard work in the very bad condition. Orwell can understand their pain and how
difficult their life to survive.
THE LEGACY OF BOOK
“ The Road to Wigan Pier ” left a gift to the society through publishing this book which
shows the mirror to the people who live in the society or in a community. It is significantly
required for the group of society and make them aware about their condition. George Orwell
majorly focus on the people who working as coal minor because author personally experience
their situations or working condition. It is very important for the society to understand the real
situation of their country as well as working condition of workers specially in the industrial
areas.
This book influence many people as well as other researchers who also write in social
context and the hard-working condition of labours (Vaninskaya, 2016). Even Orwell also said
that, if he is the coal minor than work would defiantly kill me in some weeks due to such as hard
working life which labours actually spend. It is also influence other community or group people
and change the mentality of people regarding coal minors and other labour or lower class people.

CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it has been concluded that with the help of book review
readers able to understand about content of book. George Orwell is the English author who
publish the book and it named as “The Road to Wigan Pier”. This book is about the sociological
investigation which helps the people to understand about such raw facts which is essential to
know. This book get the various criticism from the other authors, as per their of view Orwell
book was very authentic in terms of finding and the fact of society. Orwell show the darker side
of society and the reality of lower to middle class people that how they survive in the society.
Due to this reason, author think that socialism is very important for the society for the social as
well as economic growth.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Amundsen, M., 2016. George Orwell’s Ethnographies of Experience: The Road to Wigan Pier
and Down and Out in Paris and London. Anthropological Journal of European
Cultures. 25(1). pp.9-25.
Babb, J., 2017. Literature: The Road to Wigan Pier and the roads beyond. News Weekly, (2999),
p.15.
Crawley, K. L., 2016. George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier: an experimental ethnographic
study with a novelist’s touch. Prose Studies. 38(2). pp.137-151.
Dell, S., 2018. ‘Forward from Wigan Pier’: Remaking Documentary Photography in the
1930s. Visual Culture in Britain. 19(2). pp.168-188.
Goodson, I., 2016. The story so far: Personal knowledge and the political. In The Routledge
International Handbook on Narrative and Life History (pp. 99-111). Routledge.
Lia Rahmadani, L., 2015. The Reflection of Social and Political Background on George Orwell’s
The Road To Wigan Pier(Doctoral dissertation, UIN Sunan Gunung Djati Bandung).
McQuade, B., 2014. “The road from Mandalay to Wigan is a long one and the reasons for taking
it aren’t immediately clear”.
McQuade, B., 2015. “The road from Mandalay to Wigan is a long one and the reasons for taking
it aren’t immediately clear”: A World-System Biography of George Orwell. Journal of
World-Systems Research. 21(2). pp.313-338.
Rizvanbegovic, H., 2018. Translating George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, and the Case
for its Retranslation(Master's thesis).
Vaninskaya, A., 2016. William Morris and the Garden City. In Ecology and the Literature of the
British Left (pp. 137-148). Routledge.
Amundsen, M., 2016. George Orwell’s Ethnographies of Experience: The Road to Wigan Pier
and Down and Out in Paris and London. Anthropological Journal of European
Cultures. 25(1). pp.9-25.