Reading Modern Society: A Book Review of The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell

This book review provides a comprehensive analysis of The Road to Wigan Pier by George Orwell. It explores the context of the book, the author's background, the social conditions and unemployment in England during the 1930s, and the legacy of the book. The review also discusses the methodology and methods used by the author and provides an overview of the book itself.

Reading Modern Society

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
The context of the book.............................................................................................................................3
The Author.................................................................................................................................................4
The Background and Perspective.............................................................................................................5
Methodology and Methods........................................................................................................................5
The Book itself...........................................................................................................................................6
The legacy of the book...............................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Reading in the modern society is important because it enables people to keep pace with
the times. An employee needs to have a good reading habit so that they can enhance their
professional knowledge and skills for continued success in their career. The report is a book
review of the book, The Road to Wigan Pier and the book was written by George Orwell
(Chung, 2020). The main purpose of the report is to provide a book review and provides a
context of the book as well as the author, including his key life experiences and other work.
Book reviews provide a greater visibility of the book and provide a perspective to the readers.
Apart from this, the report also includes a description of the background and perspective. Lastly,
there is a brief overview of the book and the themes used in it and the approach to social research
that is taken by the author.
The context of the book
The Road to Wigan Pier was written by George Orwell and published in the year 1937. In
the first part of the book, the author has tried to give the readers a detailed view of the
unemployed as well as the poor. During this time, the National Government was formed in the
United Kingdom for the years 1935-1937. It was formed by Stanley Baldwin as he was
reappointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The year during which the respective
book was published, was a time in the United Kingdom that is basically remembered for mass
unemployment. This is because the overall economy of the country was struck by depression
(Clegg, 2018). This situation continued until the year 1938, hence the respective book primarily
talks about this issue. Besides the issue of unemployment, during the 1930s, people who had
fulfilling jobs, had high living standards. The social as well as cultural norms of the United
Kingdom are very unique. During 1930s, the culture of the country also evolved to a great
extent. There was an increase in the demand for restaurants and cinemas.
The theme of the book is similar to the situation of the country that was during the time it
was published. It can be said that the book is relevant in context to the situation during the 1930s.
During this time, the value of the British exports halved, due to which the industrial areas went
to poverty. Apart from this, the level of public spending was reduced and the taxes increased.
This was also the time of Interwar and due to this, there were various social as well as political

changes that took place in the United Kingdom, unemployment and poverty being the major
ones.
The Author
George Orwell was an English novelist, critic and essayist who was born in Bengal, India
in the year 1903. He is famous for his work in novels, Nineteen Eighty-Four that was published
in the year 1949 and Animal Farm, published in 1945. His father was a minor British official in
the Indian civil service, while his mother was the daughter of a teak merchant (Garland, 2019).
After returning to England, Orwell was sent to a boarding school that was located on the Sussex
coast. Over the years, he won scholarships to two of the leading schools of England, Eton and
Wellington. Although he had become a writer from a young age and wrote about his experiences
and reactions in his novel Burmese Days. Rather than attending the university, he undertook
exams for the Indian Civil Service and joined as a policeman in Burma. The first book written by
him was non-fictional and it was named, Down and Out in Paris and London. The book was
published in the year 1933 and was mainly based on his experiences after he left as policeman. It
was during the December of 1936 when Orwell travelled to Spain and joined one of the groups
fighting in the Spanish Civil War.
Two of the author’s best-known books have been turned into films and gained
tremendous popularity by people over the years. George Orwell has also written certain essays,
“Politics and the English Language”. Orwell got married in the year 1936 and both he and his
wife remained together until his wife’s death. The couple adopted a son and named him Richard
Horatio Blair. their son was mainly raised by his sister after his wife Eileen passed away. George
Orwell died of tuberculosis in a hospital in London in the year 1950 at the age of 46 years
(George Orwell Biography, 2021). As a child, Orwell always wanted to become a famous author.
Orwell moved to Burma in 1922, wherein he served as an Assistant Superintendent of Police for
five years before he resigned due to his growing dislike for British Imperialism (Grout, 2017). In
1928, Orwell moved to Paris and commenced a sequence of low paying jobs. In 1929, he moved
to London, once more residing in what he termed "pretty intense poverty." These reviews
provided the material for his first novel, Down and Out in Paris and London, which he positioned
with a writer in 1933 (George Orwell Biography, 2020). About this time, even as Orwell
changed into coaching in a small private school in Middlesex, he came down together with his

first bout of pneumonia because of tuberculosis, a condition might plague him during his
existence and require hospitalization once more in 1938, 1947, and 1950.
The Background and Perspective
George Orwell has written many novels as well as essays and he submitted one of the
transcripts of his work to a publisher named Gollancz in 1936. It was during the next few days
that Gollancz asked him to consider a new project and write about the social conditions as well
as unemployment in England. In the year 1936, Orwell lived in Wigen, where he researched
about the book. the respective book, The road to Wigen Pier was commissioned with an advance
of £500. This was two years’ income for George Orwell at that time (Hao, 2020). The main
purpose behind the work of George Orwell is that it is mainly characterized by lucid prose as
well as outspoken support of democratic socialism. During his work in 1984, the main purpose
of the author was to warn the readers regarding serious danger totalitarianism that posed the
society. The work of George Orwell is relevant even today. Thus, it can be said that the findings
as well as reliability of the respective book, are relevant even today. This is because they can be
applied to real -life instances. The classic work of George Orwell spoke of a dystopian society as
well as abuse of power.
1984 supplied the country with a view of a society and of a destiny which is very bleak, a
country wherein the government spies on its human beings round the clock, tells humans what to
do and what to think, and continues humans at the regular fringe of their minds with the
consistent struggle propaganda. The protagonist, Winston Smith, changed into named after
Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain when Orwell finished the book, hinting at Orwell’s
expectancies from Churchill to shop liberal democracies and additionally his admiration for his
behavior all through the warfare. Orwell furnished a properly established vision of his society, a
mechanism for manage and abuse of energy (Oxenham, 2017). Societies as such nonetheless do
exist nowadays, for instance, in North Korea, which has had an extended run over its crimes for
the reason that Soviet Union, on which Orwell primarily based each his classics, Animal Farm
and 1984.

Methodology and Methods
There are different approaches that an author or a writer can use for their work such as
survey, investigation, field research etc. The approach to social research adopted by the author is
investigation methods. This is because before writing the respective book, George Orwell
researched about the situation of the nation during the 1930s. The type of data that is used in the
book is storytelling. With the help of this type of data, the author has been able to increase the
willingness of people to read the book and communicate their thoughts. Besides this, another pro
of this type of data is that it encourages active participation among the readers. But there are also
certain cons of this, such as the book was published years ago and it can be a little difficult for
the readers in modern day to understand the language written in the book. there are certain
ethical issues that an author has to comply to in order to make sure that their work is efficient.
Some of the ethical issues that can arise while writing a book can include improper structure or
language, duplicate publication etc. The author has ensured that the ethics are followed while
writing the book.
The Book itself
In the respective book, the first chapter explains the readers about a detailed view of the
conditions of unemployed as well as poor people (Quint, 2018). In the first part of the book, the
author describes the Brooker family. The family belongs to the so-called wealthy people among
the poor ones. In their house, the family has installed a cheap lodging house as well as a small
shop. Mr. and Mrs. Brooker, both are pensioners and they also receive some rent, with the help
of which they can afford enough to eat. People who live in this lodging house, are generally
unmarried or very old and are pensioners. The author himself spends some time in this lodging
house during his researches. In the second chapter of the book, George Orwell has described the
life of miners and has stated that their working conditions are very bad. This is because they
work underground and it is very hot as well as dusty. Not only this, the space available to the
miners is also very less.
This is one of the major issues that is discussed in the book by the author and in the next
chapter, Orwell has taken a look at the social situation of average miners. He has taken many
factors into account, hygienic situation of the miners being one of them as well as the condition
of their homes. The next chapter of the respective book mainly deals with the housing situations

in some districts. All houses look the same generally but the main problem is that there is a
housing shortage in the region. As a result, the people are willing to accept any of the conditions
just so that they can get a home to live in (Reckwitz, 2018). These can include blackmailing
agents as well as bad landlords. Therefore, as long as this condition of housing shortage exists,
the local authorities cannot do anything to make it more livable. The next chapter of The Road to
Wigan Pier deals with the issue of unemployment and this is because during the year 1937, the
rate of unemployment in the country was extremely high. Most of the people wanted a job so that
they could have financial independence.
The respective book is divided into two parts, the second part of the book, Orwell has
described his personal thoughts and ideas of socialism and what it is in England (Reed, 2019).
The main idea of the author is that both socialism as well as communism are not movements of
the moving class anymore. This particular movement is led by the people who belong to the
middle class and the author has also explained how the English class system work. George
Orwell has stated in his book that the class of a person in Britain cannot be simply determined by
looking at their income.
The legacy of the book
The Road to Wigan Pier has certainly left a legacy which is very significant in the
modern day as well. A searing account of George Orwell’s reports of working-class lifestyles
inside the bleak commercial heartlands of Yorkshire and Lancashire, The Road to Wigan Pier is
a extremely good and sour polemic that has lost none of its political impact over the years. His
graphically unforgettable descriptions of social injustice, slum housing, mining situations,
squalor, hunger and developing unemployment are written with unblinking honesty, fury and
tremendous humanity (Shastina and et.al., 2019). Insightful interpretations accompany the
descriptions, though in locations Orwell ventures much less efficaciously closer to social records,
with evaluation of family budgets, statistics, housing, and so on. Some of what he writes remains
topical — a proof of the low first-class eating regimen of the bad, for instance.
Drawing on the studies described in element one, and people as a tramp defined in Down
and Out in Paris and London, Orwell goes on in element to provide some broader observations
on the English class and on the demanding situations dealing with socialism. He touches on his
personal historical past as an Eton-knowledgeable snob and his lifestyles-converting revel in as

an agent of imperialism in Burma, earlier than shifting directly to widespread observations, on
topics which includes the usage of "cleanliness" to reinforce class obstacles and the common
mismatch among social and economic reputation.
Orwell is especially good at descriptive journalism. The first 1/2 of this book shines in
element because it isn't sensationalist; it does not consciousness on unmarried activities or
catastrophic accidents as most journalism approximately coal mines does these days (Snook,
2017). Instead, Orwell paints a miles extra complete picture of a way of lifestyles, both domestic
and work, supported nearly absolutely by using private observation and studies. He indicates the
economic implications of unemployment, describes in element the housing conditions, and
skewers several prevailing misconceptions at the time (consisting of the idea that miners
wouldn't need to wash even though they'd the opportunity). He does this all in a lean, green, and
concrete fashion, without dramatics and continuously grounded in what he witnessed first-hand.
One does not recognize how rare desirable investigative journalism is until one has the
possibility to read a chunk like this. Orwell's descriptions are compellingly immersive (Wu,
2019). He builds a experience of place and environment supported simultaneously on
impressions and specifics. A designated breakdown of where the cash goes in an average
working family gives the inspiration below descriptions of the appearance and squalor of the
housing, and of remarkably memorable events such as the scramble for waste coal.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that a book review is important because it
helps in understanding the context of the book in an effective manner. It can also be concluded
that George Orwell is one of the finest writers who has written many books and essays. During
his work in 1984, the main motive of the writer turned into to warn the readers concerning
serious danger totalitarianism that posed the society. The work of George Orwell is applicable
even nowadays. Thus, it could be stated that the findings in addition to reliability of the
respective book, are applicable even nowadays. The traditional work of George Orwell spoke of
a dystopian society as well as abuse of strength. The book written by the author has left a legacy
and the readers can still gain many useful insights by reading the book.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Chung, S. T., 2020. Reading in the presence of macular disease: a mini‐review. Ophthalmic and
Physiological Optics. 40(2). pp.171-186.
Clegg, S. R., 2018. Reading Bauman and Retrotopia. Scandinavian Journal of Management.
34(4). pp.354-363.
Garland, D., 2019. Reading Foucault: An Ongoing Engagement. Journal of Law and Society.
46(4). pp.640-661.
Grout, H., 2017. Reading Modern Women. Journal of Women's History. 29(1). pp.197-206.
Hao, D., 2020. Detouring school to family: A reading of Antigone. Educational Philosophy and
Theory. 52(10). pp.1097-1104.
Oxenham, J., 2017. Literacy: writing, reading and social organisation. Routledge.
Quint, D., 2018. Cervantes's Novel of Modern Times: A New Reading of Don Quijote. Princeton
University Press.
Reckwitz, A., 2018. The invention of creativity: Modern society and the culture of the new. John
Wiley & Sons.
Reed, A., 2019. Reading minor characters: an English literary society and its culture of
investigation. PMLA. 134(1). pp.66-80.
Shastina, E. and et.al., 2019. Family reading in children literacy skills formation. Elementary
Education Online. 18(1).
Snook, E., 2017. Women, reading, and the cultural politics of early modern England. Taylor &
Francis.
Wu, L., 2019. Reading The Color Purple from the Perspective of Ecofeminism. Theory and
Practice in Language Studies. 9(8). pp.965-972.
Online
George Orwell Biography. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/n/1984/george-orwell-biography>.
George Orwell Biography. 2021. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.biography.com/writer/george-orwell >.