Down and Out in Paris and London story
Down and Out in Paris and London is the first full-length work by the English author George Orwell, published in 1933. It is a memoir[2] in two parts on the theme of poverty in the two cities. The first part is an account of living in near-destitution in Paris and the experience of casual labour in restaurant kitchens. The second part is a travelogue of life on the road in and around London from the tramp's perspective, with descriptions of the types of hostel accommodation available and some of the characters to be found living on the margins.
11 total · 3 choice · 3 major · 5 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| life in late modern Britain | choice | second half of the book is around London. |
| life in late modern France | choice | first half of the book is around Paris. |
| what it is like to be impoverished | choice | George Orwell writes about how he experienced the poverty of London and Paris first hand at the end of the 1920s. In Paris he pawned his possessions and nearly starved before getting a dishwasher jobs that barely made ends meet. In London he lived for a while like a tramp. |
| coping with starvation | major | Orwell is starving several times |
| friendship | major | in Paris Boris, in London Paddy and Bozo to some extent |
| the hospitality industry | major | The narrator described his experiences working at a Paris hotel. |
| coping with stress at work | minor | Orwell was stressed out as plongeur at the Hotels |
| creative writing | minor | Orwell talked about writing from time to time. |
| language change | minor | Orwell discusses some words briefly |
| lookism in society | minor | when Orwell changed clothes people's attitudes changed notably |