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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 was one way the middle class worked to abolish class distinctions?

2. What was a favorite refuge for the unemployed man in Wigan?

3. What did "The Sleeper Awakes" and "Brave New World" have in common in Orwell's opinion?

4. What portion of the population of Wigan was living on unemployment, including family members?

5. In order to calculate the actual number of people living on unemployment in England, what would one need to do?

Short Essay Questions

1. What were some of the negative affects of unemployment on any town despite unemployment benefits?

2. What was the Means Test? Why did people dislike the Means Test?

3. 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?

4. What does the statement by Napoleon "an army marches on its stomach" mean in context of life in industrialized England?

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

6. What was "scrambling for the coal?"

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

8. How did Orwell explain the attitude toward the family in a working class society? How did it differ in his opinion from the middle class man and his family?

9. 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?

10. What were some of the benefits available to unemployed workers in Wigan and Sheffield? How long did benefits last? How long could someone remain unemployed before running out of benefits?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Orwell used his childhood and upbringing as an example of social class, class prejudices and class values. Discuss the differences Orwell saw between the bourgeois, the lower-middle class and the working class in England in the 1930's. Why was this distinction between the classes important to Orwell in his discussion of Socialism?

Essay Topic 2

In the first chapter, Orwell described the meals provided by the Brookers to their lodgers. These meals were non-nutritious and in no way sated a man's hunger. How is this nutritional issue symbolic of other themes in his book, such as the poor and the country's need for Socialism?

Essay Topic 3

Four political ideologies are presented in Orwell's book: Socialism, Capitalism, Fascism and Communism. Compare and contrast the four ideologies. Which are incompatible with each other? Were Orwell not a Socialist, what would he most likely have been committed to and why?

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