Orwells such, Such Were The Joys....: Alienation And Other Such Joy :: essays research papers

Orwells "Such, Such Were the Joys...." Alienation and Other Such JoysGeorge Orwell expresses a feeling of monomania throughout "Such, SuchWere the Joys...." He casts himself as a misfit, unable to realize his peers,the authorities placed over him, and the laws that govern his existence. Orwellwrites, The good and the possible neer seemed to coincide (37). Though heshows his ability to enumerate what is good, he resigns himself to apredestined state uncertain of where exactly he fits in society, his postureis irreconcilable with what he knows society expects of him. Orwells childhoodunderstanding of society forces him into however one possible direction, failure.This essay is the maturing Orwells response to childhood subjugation, a acuteexposure to the evolution of Orwells thought.     Orwells life as a boarding drill student at Crossgates occupies hismemory of childhood and serves as the platform for his views on life.Repeatedly Orwell desc ribes the society of the school from which he is outcastThat bump on the hard mattress, on the first night of term, used to give me afeeling of abrupt awakening, a feeling of This is reality, this is what youare up against. Your kin might be far from perfect, but at least it was aplace ruled by love rather than by fear, where you did not have to beperpetually taken out of this secure inhabit and flung into a world of force andfraud and secrecy, like a goldfish into a tank full of pike. (23)Young Orwell, impacted by this, hard, disorient situation, realizes he isalone in a hostile, harsh environment. Orwell uses the image of the warm nest,a womb, from which the child is thrown, then innocently forced into a soul-destroying reality. This reality is Crossgates, an educational institution butalso a primary election residence, the home Orwell lives in on a daily basis for anumber of years. Far from the love of his familial home, Orwell finds thatCrossgates does not nurture nor asser t a boy to manhood, but rather destroys allthat he loves and trusts. dispiritedly dominated in this environment, he iscompelled to accept a mentality of peril and inferiority and becomes thefodder of others--the winners of society.     Sim and Bingo, the spiritual and emotional guides of Crossgates, feedoff of this miserable mentality and their carefully constructed school environment.By the social standards that prevailed about me, I was no good, and could not beany good. But all the variant kinds of virtue seemed to be mysteriouslyinterconnected and to belong to much the same(p) people.