24 pages • 48 minutes read
George OrwellSuch, Such Were the Joys
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Classism in Great Britain
The main concern of the essay is an exposure of the negative aspects of classism in Britain through the lens of one of its chief institutions, the preparatory school system. Classism, broadly defined as a system of societal discrimination based on economic status, was a key feature of British society and was particularly influential during the Edwardian era, in which the main action described in the essay takes place. Orwell’s concern is to illuminate not only how classism operates in preparatory schools but also how such schools help to institutionalize and perpetuate it.
In a key passage of “Such, Such Were the Joys,” Orwell uses a typical conversation between students about holidays and expensive cars to highlight how deeply rooted classism is in preparatory school life. This conversation’s purpose is to uncover “boys of doubtful social origin” so that students from the British upper classes can isolate and demean students from a lower class (394). The author compares the social hierarchy at the school to the Indian caste system. Its three ranks consist of aristocrats at the top, “the unaristocratic rich” in the middle (369), and middle-class “underlings” at the bottom (373). This obsession with social position is encouraged by the school’s administrators, who join the conversation to reaffirm the classist assumptions underlying it. Orwell underlines the snobbishness and elitism of preparatory schools to better argue for their abolition and replacement by a fairer educational system.
Classism as a theme is consistently presented in this negative light by Orwell in the essay, and he connects classism with ideas of mindless adherence and conformity. For Orwell, classism is the chief obstacle to a more democratic economy in postwar Britain. To see a better society come about, he believes that the education system underlying classist attitudes must be done away with before any other reform can be addressed. It is this concern with classism that lies at the heart of “Such, Such Were the Joys.” Every other theme and idea presented in the essay follows from this.
The Normalization of Abuse
One of the most repeated observations in Orwell’s essay is how abuse can be perpetuated in a society by means of its normalization. By linking abuse to societal norms and gender expectations, the British preparatory school system is able to abuse students with impunity to meet an underlying goal of outstanding exam results. This systematic abuse is not only accepted by the students themselves but also presented as a natural extension of British society, in which “the rich, the strong, the elegant, the fashionable, the powerful” are justified in doing whatever they please simply by being born into an elite position (395).
Orwell demonstrates how abuse is normalized through three techniques: manipulation, indoctrination, and shame. The administrators of St Cyprian’s utilize these methods in tandem, each building on the other. Manipulation is utilized particularly by the key figure of Flip, who is a master at controlling the students’ emotions. Due to this, the students attempt to appease Flip, a process that Orwell describes as currying her “favor.” The students begin to understand that any chance of happiness at St Cyprian’s depends on this process, and they openly use the terms “I’m in good favor,” or “I’m in bad favor” when describing their current circumstances to one another (383). Flip’s manipulation is an important tool through which the administrators of St Cyprian’s control the mindset of their students.
Orwell’s examples of indoctrination are numerous throughout the essay. One passage provides strong evidence of indoctrination’s lasting effect on the psyche of a preparatory school student. When reflecting on the beatings he received for wetting his bed, Orwell remarks that the “barbarous” punishment worked, “though at a heavy price” (369). The author suggests that he still feels the traumatic effects years later.
Shame is perhaps the greatest tool the administrators of St Cyprian’s have. It is used to stop unwarranted behaviors and create a lasting feeling of inadequacy in students. In the incident of mutual masturbation that Orwell references in the essay, the theme of shame is shown in full effect. The initial reaction to the incident by Flip and Sambo is a collective punishment of conjoined shaming, in which Flip, in particular, singles out individual students and accuses them of “offending” moral codes to the detriment of younger students (387). The “load of guilt” falls on all the students, so even those uninvolved, including young Orwell, feel a keen sense of shame (388).
By associating abuse with a victim’s actions, both physical and emotional abuse are excused to the point that even the worst examples are held up as natural and inevitable consequences of behavior. This normalization of what would later be viewed as horrible neglect and endangerment is criticized as a chief feature of the preparatory school system throughout “Such, Such Were the Joys.” By highlighting such normalization of abuse, Orwell hopes to present a strong case that vast reforms are needed in the British educational system.
A Child’s Worldview
In “Such, Such Were the Joys,” Orwell shifts between two perspectives of his boarding school experiences. Through the act of memory, the author recreates his feelings about St Cyprian’s as a boy. At the same time, he looks back on his responses from the viewpoint of adult experience. Throughout the essay, Orwell argues that “[t]he child and the adult live in different worlds” (403).
The title of the essay, taken from William Blake’s poem “Song of Innocence,” is ironic. Describing the harsh realities of his childhood education, Orwell emphasizes that there was nothing “joyful” about this stage of his life—a period traditionally associated with carefree innocence. The author suggests that the boarding school, like the British class system, works through the systematic oppression of individuals who are unequipped to fight back. He also points out that children are unlikely to express unhappiness to adults; therefore, “[a] child which appears reasonably happy may actually be suffering horrors which it cannot or will not reveal” (401).
Orwell’s essay serves as a reminder that children possess a unique lens through which they interpret the world. The sections of the text written from his perspective as a boy highlight his naivety and powerlessness as he navigates a system dominated by adults. He resigns himself to abuse by the school’s authority figures, as “[a] child accepts the codes of behavior that are presented to it” (378). Like the other students, he is taught that punishments are the consequence of disobeying societal norms, whether consciously (in the case of the incident of mutual masturbation) or unconsciously (in the case of Orwell’s bed-wetting incident).
As a child, Orwell lacks both the agency and understanding to challenge the rules imposed on him. His unquestioning absorption of the often contradictory and nonsensical “facts” distributed by Mr. Wilkes and his wife illustrate how a “child has little sense of proportion or probability” (377). Young Orwell is a “blank sheet,” meaning that authority figures like Sambo and Flip wield immense power and shape his worldview. Thus, he believes Flip’s claim that dark circles under the eyes of a boy named Hardcastle are signs of moral degeneracy and anxiously looks out for this symptom in the mirror. While hating the headmaster and his wife, he also believes they are his “benefactors” (377).
While St Cyprian’s is portrayed as a harsh habitat for any student, young Orwell’s experience is worse, as he is both a child and of a lower social status than most of the other pupils. These factors combine to create an environment where his inferiority to both adults and other boys is constantly emphasized. Describing his sense of worthlessness and alienation, Orwell conveys the effects of cruelty and oppression on a child’s developing psyche. Underlining the vast difference between the perspective of an adult and a child, the author contemplates what his assessment of Sambo and Flip would be if he met them now. He argues that instead of perceiving them as “terrible, all-powerful monsters,” he would recognize them as “a couple of silly, shallow, ineffectual people” (403).
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