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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What four words did Orwell discuss in detail as the reason for class distinctions?

2. What did Orwell find amazing about the unemployed men he met after returning from Burma?

3. How was the Socialist world seen when Orwell wrote this book?

4. What did Orwell find was the basis of the diet for families of the unemployed?

5. Who did Orwell believe was doing the best work for the unemployed in the thirties?

Short Essay Questions

1. What one overarching generalization was Orwell taught about the lower classes of people in his town? What author did Orwell quote in support of this theory, and what did the author say?

2. Why did Orwell think the working class people were rarely pure Socialists?

3. What did Orwell identify as the two methodologies for abolishing the class system in England? Why did he believe neither of these two to be viable?

4. How did Orwell's time in the military police effect his thinking about government and oppression?

5. What did Orwell do in order to learn more about the working class conditions he had previously not understood? How did he go about trying to be a part of the working class and see the world through their eyes?

6. What was the employment situation in Wigan and Sheffield, the two towns Orwell wrote about?

7. How did Orwell see the clash between the Socialist idea of the machine state and the working people Socialism wished to bring into the fold?

8. How did Orwell argue against the common misconception that the poor and unemployed are simply lazy?

9. Where did Orwell go to live for five years when he was twenty? What were the difference in class distinctions he observed there?

10. What were the reasons Orwell cited for Socialism being intrinsically tied to machine industrialization?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Orwell described in detail the house in which he stayed with the Brookers, and the houses he visited and reported on for his book. Discuss the housing conditions in Wigan, Sheffield and other towns in northern England in the 1930's. Why were things so deplorable? Who did Orwell believe was responsible for the living conditions of the working and unemployed poor?

Essay Topic 2

Orwell believed that as economies become more depressed, class distinctions become more pronounced. Do you think this was true in pre-war England? What was the economy like in the 1930's? Based on what we have experienced here in the last four years, do you believe that class distinctions are greater as our economy has become depressed? Discuss.

Essay Topic 3

Orwell spent five years in Burma as a member of the Imperial Police. Discuss how this experience affected his life, his politics and his belief system.

(see the answer keys)

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