The Road to Wigan Pier: A Sociological Investigation by George Orwell

This report reviews George Orwell's book The Road to Wigan Pier, a sociological investigation of the living conditions of working-class people in Lancashire and Yorkshire during the interwar period. The report discusses the context of the book, the author, the background and perspective of the book, the methodology and methods used, and the book itself. It also explores the legacy of the book and its impact on society.

Reading Modern
Society

INTRODUCTION
Purpose of this report is reviewing book written by George Orwell named The Road to
Wigan Pier. Review of this book will help you to develop understanding of Social Sciences and
investigation done by George Orwell in sociological context. In this report firstly context of book
will be discussed and followed by this description about author will be included. This will be
followed by background and perspective of book and methodologies and method and after this
book itself will be discussed in report. Legacy of book will be conceded in order to understand
whether it has left a Legacy or has influenced others. Method of Investigation include reading the
book and similar literature and a literature based on this through different online sources to gain
in that information and data.
The context of the book
The Road to Wigan Pier was firstly published in 1937 as an edition of Cloth Bound Trade
and Left Book Club selection. The book is written in English language and autobiography and
was published by with Victor Gollancz. This book presents the context of time before World
War II. First half of the book is social logical investigation of living condition among working
class people in industrial countries of North of England Lancashire and Yorkshire. The time
when this book was published experienced considerable changes in political and social aspect in
which there was a stability in economic contact as result of division of Ireland. It was also the
time when before few years UK experience the great depression that was also known as great
slump that caused economic downturn and affected social lives of people (Rizvanbegovic, 2018).
Period from 1918 to 1939 is also considered as interwar period. In political context Liberal Party
was disintegrated and after that the Labour Party was important challenges for Conservative
Party that was also dominant party all over this period. Impact of The Great Depression on UK
was less severe however areas of UK specially mining district severely affected from continued
unemployment and deprivation in Scotland and North West England. The book is about bleak
living condition of working class people in Lancashire and Yorkshire and these are industrial
north of England suggest that these areas were severely affected by The Great Depression. In
cultural aspect there what changes large scale circulation race got engaged every measure
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newspaper. This was also time when education, leisure, wealth, facilitated travel and broad and
sense of belongingness was increasing (Poutanen, 2017). Culture of cinema and radio was also
increasing along with sports and reading. George Orwell has also produced other works in
political andsociological context and in this one of the socially critical novels by George Orwell
is Keep the Aspidistra Flying.
The Author
Eric Arthur Blair known by his pen name George Orwell is author of book the road
toWigan Pier. George Orwell was born in 1903 and was an English journalist, novelist, critic and
essayist. Work of George Orwell is differentiated as plain novella, social criticism and forthright
support of democratic socialism along with opposition to totalitarianism. Being a writer literary
criticism and poetry, political journalism and fiction are work of George Orwell. In relation with
his work he is well recognised for symbolic story Animal Farm published in 1945 and anti-
utopia novel 1984 produced in 1949. Nonfiction work of George Orwell included The Road to
Wigan Pier and Homage to Catalonia published in 1938. These two are based on his individual
experiences about life of working class in North of England and his account for experiences
while soldering for Republican section of Spanish civil war. George Orwell was an influential
personality in political culture and have adjective that is Orwellian and this describes totalitarian
and authoritarian social practices. Eric Arthur Blair also known as George Orwell was born in
Motihari, Bihar, British India. Eric was when 1 year old his mother if the player settled with her
children in Henley on Thames in Oxfordshire. Education of Orwell started in Roman Catholic
Convent in Henley-On-Thames. After this all well went to saint-Cyprian school Eastbourne, East
Sussex (Bounds, 2017). George Orwell also works as Imperial police officers which give him
significant responsibility at the age when most of his contemporary were studying in England. In
1927 he resigned from Indian Imperial police for becoming a writer after five and half year of
service. In 1932 Orwell will become teacher at the headphones High School and in 1933 Orwell
left hotels to become a teacher in Middlesex at Frays College. Experiences of George Orwell
motivated his first novel Burmese Days that was published in New York in 1934. However first
book of George Orwell was Down and Out in Paris and London published in 1933 which was
non fictional work and was based on his individual experience after leaving police.
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The Background and Perspective
The book The Road to Wigan Pier was commissioned and this was commissioned by
Victor Gollancz and implications of this was to make a study about unemployment and areas in
depression of the north England. Later the book was not only published by Victor Gollancz but
was also selected by of Left Book Club. Commissioning of book was accepted by Orwell and he
started a tour of Black Country Lancashire and Yorkshire from 31 January to 25 March 1936 and
he returned to London by March ending (ŞAHİN, 2021). Lancashire and Yorkshire are also two
of the countries in England that got severely affected because of The Great Depression. During
his journey he partially travelled from foot and partially from public transport. Areas that Orwell
travelled include Coventry, Birmingham, Wolverhampton, the Potteries, Macclesfield,
Manchester, Liverpool, Sheffield, Leeds and Barnsley. During his travel for the book he met
with miners, trade union officials, officials of National Unemployed Workers Movement and
other people. The cause of meeting was to study and understand housing condition, and to
understand for himself effect of poverty, unemployment and malnourishment on the lives of
normal people (Peters, 2019). This was the reason that Orwell stayed at different places for
different times and Wigan was the only place where Orwell stayed for 2 weeks highest time
spent in an area during his tour. Orwell recorded his experiences and observations in a diary and
this was found in his papers after his death and was published in Collected Essays, Journalism
and Letters.
Viewpoint of author was sociological viewpoint and book is also considered as
sociological investigation and Orwell worked on experiencing and understanding effect of
unemployment and poverty. Purpose behind this was to know about bleak living condition of
working class people living in Lancashire and Yorkshire, industrial countries in north England.
This viewpoint as well as tour and efforts that Orwell made on understanding condition of people
living in Lancashire and Yorkshire have a considerable impact of reliability and validity of book
(Colls, 2019). This is because findings of book were also in line with purpose and viewpoint of
author related to book. In relation with reliability of book, it is highly reliable because what
author recorded and wrote in book is based on his experience rather than knowledge gained from
secondary sources. In addition to this search was also in line with viewpoint as well as purpose
for the book.
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The work aims at highlighting living condition of working class people in industrial
countries (Rodden, 2020). In this firsthand experiences of Orwell about poor and bleak living
conditions of people have been written in book. Sociological aspect was also considered in this
book and Orwell aimed at describing overlooked aspect of society and injustice happening to
Northern British Industrial Towns. Aims also involved depicting views on social class and
English Society. This book worked as a very important as an eye-opener about challenging
hardship that many working class gentry experienced during The Great Depression. In addition
to this, things like horrible housing, social injustice and lack of consideration from government
about these conditions were also included in book.
Methodology and Methods
Approach of social research adopted by Orwell for this book and research was critical
social science research and qualitative approach. Critical social science research is done for
refusing myths and empowering people for make radical changes in society and in critical social
science nature of social reality is powered with conflict and is governed by hidden underlying
structures. In this research nature of human being is creative, adaptive people who have
unrealised potential and those who are trapped by illusion and exploitation. In relation with role
of common sense I hide power and objective condition. In such situation qualitative approach for
research was adopted by Orwell for the research. Qualitative approach of research involves
collection and analysis of non-numerical data for enabling understanding of concepts, opinion
and experiences. This is used to gain in-depth knowledge and understanding of a problem of
generation of new ideas (Hitchens, 2019). Qualitative research enables to understand how people
experience world and methods for qualitative research includes observation, focus group,
surveys and interviews. Non-numerical and observational as well as experience based data was
collected by Orwell for this research. For the purpose of collecting data he toured to different
places to adequately and personally understand experiences of people living in bleak condition,
poverty and unemployment. In relation with collection of data there is no ethical issues and
collection of data and writing book The Road to Wigan Pier is also written as autobiography of
George Orwell and does not involve any ethical issue.
Pros and cons of qualitative research are-
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Pros involve that qualitative research enables in-depth understanding of subject area and
question being researched on (Moreno-Tejada, 2020). Qualitative research is also open-ended
and is highly flexible and enables to effectively predict and provide basis for prediction.
Quantitative research does not allow for recording experiences and observation but this is an
advantage of qualitative research.
Cons of qualitative research include that it is mainly based upon understanding and
experience of researcher and it can also lose data. In addition to this, replication of results can
also be difficult in qualitative research.
The Book itself
The Road to Wigan Pier is autobiography of George Orwell in which he recorded his
social logical investigation about public living condition of working class people in Lancashire
and Yorkshire. First half of the book consist of documentation of his research or investigation
and second half of the book is about his upbringing and development of political conscience and
his questioning British attitude towards socialism. The two parts of book are divided on the basis
of part 1 and part 2 and the overall book consists of 13 chapters in which part 1 chapter 1 from
chapter 7 and part 2 cover from chapter 8 to chapter 13. Chapter one of the book is based on
environment and situation of industrial area in which chapter starts with how morning in
industrial country start and further states poor condition of housing and its surroundings and how
the lives of people are in such houses and surroundings (Gildart and Catterall, 2019). 2nd chapter
is about coal and coal mining industrial countries and condition of coal mining and how the work
ok is done in coal mine. 3rdchapter of the book is about miners and their condition when they
income from work and how they work in mines. Theme of 4th chapter industrial towns and their
conditions how they are black and bi smoke and poor conditions of the town. 5th chapter outlines
unemployment figures and there were 2 million people unemployed. This was calculated by
registered unemployed. 6th chapter of book start with one of the school memory of author and
then it is linked with condition or poor condition of children living in poverty and their
condition. 7th chapter bring an ending to first part of book and this involve how and in which
manner conditions get more worsen when individual while travelling is accustomed to south or
East and how condition get worsen after travelling from one city to another. In second part of
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book that starts with 8 chapter start it with giving a background on his tour to Lancashire and
Yorkshire. After this author state information about himself and his family and about English
class system. Author also share several experiences he had during his school and how he was
treated being a lower middle class child. Chapter 9th starts with sharing experience of author
when he was fourteen or fifteen. This chapter also include experiences of author from his school
time and about English education system and more experiences of his life as he grows up.
According to author at the age of 17 or 18 he was both snob as well as revolutionary and was
against all authority (Hollis, 2017). 10th chapter of book starts with an argument over class
system and author states that unfortunately one cannot solve class problem by making friends
with tramps. In this chapter Emphasis of author is centralised on class system and class
differences and how they affect people. Chapter 11th starts with the question about what is
socialism and also outlines definition of socialism. In the book socialism is “as a world-system
and wholeheartedly applied, is a way out. It would at least ensure our getting enough to eat even
if it deprived us of everything else”. Socialism in again discussed in Chapter 12th and other
appliance different view point about socialism in this chapter. Last and final chapter 13th chapter
of book start with authorstating “And Finally, is there anything one can do about it”.
The legacy of the book
The road to Wigan Pier has a mixed legacy for Wigan but book has exposed reality of life
for many people in towns. In this book hardship of people of Wigan has been effectively
highlighted. However, the book have not done justice with exposing strengths of Wigan which is
hardworking, warm and friendly people of Wigan. This book highlighted extreme condition of
Wigan and areas in deprivation and people living in such conditions (Orwell, 2018). Condition of
poverty hit countries that many were completely unaware of was described by the book and most
effective way. This is because poverty and conditions of people living in unemployment was
individually experienced by author of the book and this is why depiction of reality on social
aspect was done very honestly.
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CONCLUSION
Here it can be summarised that the book The Road to Wigan Pier that was written in time
interwar time when world was experiencing effect of The Great Depression. However, England
was not severely affected but two industrial countries of Northern England Lancashire and
Yorkshire were severely affected. Unemployment in these industrial countries became
widespread and conditions of these countries were stated and recorded in book. This book was
written on the basis of real life experience that George Orwell had while travelling to these
countries and different locations. Book also involves depiction of his life and different personal
experiences that author have had because of being lower-middle class child. Views and opinion
of author about socialism and what he considers about socialism and its effects and difficulties in
socialism were also depicted in book.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bounds, P., 2017. 10 Orwell’s progeny. Cultural Politics in the Age of Austerity, p.216.
Colls, R., 2019, April. Ronald Leslie Greenall (1937–2018). In History Workshop Journal (Vol.
87, pp. 311-314). Oxford Academic.
Gildart, K. and Catterall, S., 2019. Did Wigan have a northern soul?.
Gopinath, P., 2018. Englishman Writing: Self-Reflexivity and the Poetics of
Prose. Contemporary Literature, 59(4), pp.522-527.
Hitchens, D., 2019. Inside Amazon. First Things: A Monthly Journal of Religion and Public Life,
(289), pp.49-53.
Hollis, C., 2017. A study of George Orwell: The man and his works. Skyhorse.
Moreno-Tejada, J., 2020. Editorial Introduction to the Special Collection ‘Dirty Places,
Geographies of Waste’. Worldwide Waste: Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(1).
Orwell, G., 2018. Orwell on Truth. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Peters, J., 2019. Women in Conrad. English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, 62(1), pp.137-
139.
Poutanen, M., 2017. George Orwell: The Road to Wigan Pier [Tie Wiganin
aallonmurtajalle]. Politiikka, 59(1), pp.71-75.
Rizvanbegovic, H., 2018. Translating George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, and the Case
for its Retranslation (Master's thesis).
Rodden, J., 2020. England’s Prose Laureate. In Becoming George Orwell (pp. 124-138).
Princeton University Press.
ŞAHİN, A., 2021. The Criticism of Abuse of Religion in the Novel of Animal Farm by George
Orwell. Tarih ve Gelecek Dergisi, 7(2), pp.623-635.
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