Inside George Orwell

While Blair was developing this sense of social awareness, Bowker is keen to note, as many of Orwell's critics, both past and present have already done, that he was also a man of tremendous contradictions. A self-proclaimed socialist, the young Blair would often complain about the repugnant condition in which the lower classes lived, particularly deriding them for their odor. Bowker also points out Blair's misogynistic attitude towards women, a criticism often levied against Orwell as showing through into his work. These contradictions were not invisible to Orwell himself, who while in Burma described how his own feelings were often at odds: "With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeclorum, upon the will of prostrate people; with another I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts." Perhaps the greatest criticism of Orwell would come late in his career when he produced a list of "crypto-communists"-a blacklist of sorts of individuals whom Orwell thought could prove harmful should they be allowed in positions of influence. The toughest job of any biographer of Orwell is to explain these contradictions, and Bowker does a fine job of describing where Orwell's contradictions stemmed from while at the same time not becoming an apologist for the author's often repulsive behavior.

On returning home from Burma, Blair would find his countryman celebrating the recent executions of the Italian-American anarchists Sacco and Vanzetti. The injustice of the case would tell Blair that what he had witnessed in Burma was not relegated to the colonies. Oppression of the lower-classes, particularly political dissenters like Sacco and Vanzetti, was occurring throughout the world, even in supposedly free lands like the U.S. which Blair himself had praised as a bastion of democracy.

Blair maintained his interest in the lower classes upon his return, writing several sociological treatises on tramps and slum life even spending stretches of time living on the streets, posing as a derelict to get the real scoop. Although never quite believable in the role (his Etonian speech and upper-class mannerisms gave him away) he did gain the trust of some of the hobos. Several critics, particularly from the Left, would jab at Orwell for exploiting the street-folk, calling him a wolf-in-sheep's-clothing upper class intellectual posing as a revolutionary. But, as Bowker notes, the young author was always sincere in his research, and was only looking to tell their story.

Blair's adventures with the downtrodden would lead to the publication of his first manuscript, "Down and Out in London and Paris." Not wanting his Etonian past to skew the perception of his research, Orwell would sign the work using a pen name-George Orwell. Bowker describes the creation of the Orwell personae in almost ceremonial terms signifying the end of Blair's pilgrimage towards becoming a real author. Combined with his next work, "The Road to Wigan Pier," a treatise on the lives of a group of people in a small mining town, Orwell was becoming known up-and-coming chronicler of the downtrodden.

As civil war raged in Spain, it was time for Orwell to put his beliefs into practice. Joining the ranks of anti-Fascists from across the globe, Orwell enlisted to fight in the war as a member of the United Marxist Worker's Party (POUM). It would be during the war that Orwell would become increasingly disillusioned with the Left, particularly concerning it's divisiven tendencies and inability to unite. As a member of POUM, Orwell found himself at odds with the communists, who thought his group to be supporters of Franco's regime. This would cause Orwell to develop an intense paranoia, as he believed that he and his wife Eileen were becoming the targets of communist spies. Orwell's fears would be confirmed when charges of treason were brought against he and Eileen on the accusation that they were Trotskyists. Nothing would come of the charges, but Orwell was shaken enough by the experience that he began to carry a handgun with him at all times.

Following his return from the front, Orwell would set to write the true story of the revolution, but found it difficult to find a publisher willing to take on the work. Left-wing publishers wouldn't touch it because of Orwell's criticism of Communism and Right-wing publishers found Orwell to be a dangerous revolutionary. After much difficulty, Orwell would find a publisher brave enough to release Homage to Catalonia.