Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell

Two weeks ago, choosing some books to read in the second hand bookstore of Umbertide of the charity Books for Dogs, I also picked up Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

Speaking with Heather, one of the ladies of the committee I asked her if it would be more simple to be poor in Paris or London. She answered me back that substantially London is a sooo expensive city. Maybe it would be better to be poor in Paris.

Orwell, also author of 1984 and Animal Farm that I guess and hope that we all read when we were at the intermediate school, portrayed the life of a pennieless boy.

Imagine to lose your dignity. You remain without money and you are in a big city. How trying to cope with it? At first you try to search for some good old contact that you remember was much more lucky than you, or better, of the person you recently became: someone poor, without anymore dignity, as a companion a lot of bugs in your room in the poor hotel you stay in, in Paris.

But...Imagine that the same misfortune captured also your friend and finding a job starts to become constantly more difficult because you see, you meet people similar to you, poor, pennieless and at the same time stealers, opportunists because they also need money. People in grade of illuding you, trying to give to you the prospect of a job, for later discovering that it was a fake story.

People without work lose their energy, they become letargic, they think that their destiny has been somewhere written; they don't feel anymore enthusiasm for life, they don't think that they can change their destiny. This book, as also the other ones by Orwell, is in grade to speak to the soul of readers using just the reality of the facts as filter and acutes,  objective observations of the facts: the poor protagonist of this story and the people he met along his way must let us think a lot.

As wrote at the end of the book Orwell "I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is the beginning."

Anna Maria Polidori