Poverty Is Inextricably Linked with Oppression
Even now—but especially during the period when Orwell was writing his book—poverty was not naturally linked to external forces by many people. The prevailing view—whether actually believed or merely expressed as a kind of wish-fulfillment—was that people living under such extreme economic conditions did solely due to some character flaw on their part. Poverty was linked with laziness from within far more often than with oppressive conditions imposed from without. To an extent, Orwell himself believed this way prior to finding himself a victim and learning for himself that almost every conventional wisdom those fortunate enough to never be impoverished clung to was false to one degree or another.
Fitzgerald Was Wrong: The Rich Are Not Different
F. Scott Fitzgerald famously wrote “the rich are different from you and me.” Though not exactly what he was talking about, another conventional wisdom of the time was that distinct differences did exist between the rich and the poor. The rich were harder working and the poor were less ambitious. The rich were more sophisticated and the poor too vulgar to succeed. The rich had a natural grace and poise while the poor were awkward and boorish. His experience living on the edge of economic devastation taught Orwell that this is pure myth. In concluding that the absolutely the only thing that divides the rich from the poor is the income they make, Orwell observed with a stunning finality that “the average millionaire is only the average dishwasher dressed in a new suit.”
Economics Defines Identity
One of the most valuable lessons Orwell learned became a dominant theme of the book: how identity is inseparable from one’s economic status at any given time. Another way the rich and the poor are the same is that this is a truth that applies to both. A person with enough money to buy a nice suit—even if they spend their last dollar on it—is more likely to get a job than someone of greater means who shows up looking tattered or wearing a cheaper suit. Paradoxically, looking too poor or too hungry—even though you may not have a dime or have eaten a meal in days—is actually adverse to the process of begging because if you cross a certain point of pathos in how you appear, the result is not sympathy from those better off, but anger and disgust. Orwell learns that people of all economic strata put on a persona that must be projected to the world for purposes related to economic perspective, creating a viciously endless circle that can never be broken since it follows one both up and down the ladder of financial being.
