First impressions of Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell
Hello everybody and welcome back to another blog post,
I've been slowly ploughing my way through my other books, that I thought it would be a good time to start a new one. This book I got for my 15th birthday and its the Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. I've never read his other classics like Animal Farm. I was told that Orwell's writing style was always a bit complicated to understand but reading Homage to Catalonia so far has not been too bad. I had to look up some of the historical context behind this book before reading it since I don't know so much about the Spanish Civil War. All I knew was that the book was based on Orwell's personal experiences as a militiaman (a member of a militia which is an army formed from the civil population in this particular emergency) fighting for the Republican army during this war.
What I found was that on the 17th of July 1936, led by General Franco, the Spanish army started the Spanish Civil War by rebelling against the Second Republic, in a desperate bid to the destroy the left-wing organisations. During the time, thousands of people across the world joined in to help defend the Second Republic. One of these people was George Orwell himself. This suddenly became a fight not only against the Francoists, but also against fascism. I could clearly see the terrible tragedy that unfolded in Orwell's accounts of being on the battle field. He wasn't even taught how to use a rifle properly, yet he was expected to defeat the enemy. Some of the rifles were old and barely even safe to use. I also read about his accounts of encountering the classic smells of being on a battlefield. Everything seemed dead and still, as every village was destroyed. Orwell also had to sleep in horrible conditions in these villages. The Second Republic army didn't even have a proper uniform so as they paraded in public down the streets, they looked like the civilians that they were, instead of soldiers.This was what the war was really like. On the 1st of April 1939, the war had ended but that couldn't remove the scars from families who had just lost their loved ones in battle. 325,000 people died fighting or from disease. The war may have ended then but Spain had to endure massive political and economic isolation up until the 1950s and basic rights were only granted in the late 1970s.
It pains me that this part of history is not talked about more because so many people were affected by it and still are to this day. However, after reading this book, I hope to educate myself more on this topic and I encourage you to read this too. ☺
Have you every read this book? Do you know much about the Spanish Civil War? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Tap one of the reaction boxes below to let me know what you thought of this post. It would really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this with a friend who might find this article interesting too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Website used for research:
History Today
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My main blog:
Keeping Up With Juliette
I've been slowly ploughing my way through my other books, that I thought it would be a good time to start a new one. This book I got for my 15th birthday and its the Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell. I've never read his other classics like Animal Farm. I was told that Orwell's writing style was always a bit complicated to understand but reading Homage to Catalonia so far has not been too bad. I had to look up some of the historical context behind this book before reading it since I don't know so much about the Spanish Civil War. All I knew was that the book was based on Orwell's personal experiences as a militiaman (a member of a militia which is an army formed from the civil population in this particular emergency) fighting for the Republican army during this war.
What I found was that on the 17th of July 1936, led by General Franco, the Spanish army started the Spanish Civil War by rebelling against the Second Republic, in a desperate bid to the destroy the left-wing organisations. During the time, thousands of people across the world joined in to help defend the Second Republic. One of these people was George Orwell himself. This suddenly became a fight not only against the Francoists, but also against fascism. I could clearly see the terrible tragedy that unfolded in Orwell's accounts of being on the battle field. He wasn't even taught how to use a rifle properly, yet he was expected to defeat the enemy. Some of the rifles were old and barely even safe to use. I also read about his accounts of encountering the classic smells of being on a battlefield. Everything seemed dead and still, as every village was destroyed. Orwell also had to sleep in horrible conditions in these villages. The Second Republic army didn't even have a proper uniform so as they paraded in public down the streets, they looked like the civilians that they were, instead of soldiers.This was what the war was really like. On the 1st of April 1939, the war had ended but that couldn't remove the scars from families who had just lost their loved ones in battle. 325,000 people died fighting or from disease. The war may have ended then but Spain had to endure massive political and economic isolation up until the 1950s and basic rights were only granted in the late 1970s.
It pains me that this part of history is not talked about more because so many people were affected by it and still are to this day. However, after reading this book, I hope to educate myself more on this topic and I encourage you to read this too. ☺
Have you every read this book? Do you know much about the Spanish Civil War? Let me know in the comments below and I'll be sure to reply to them. I ♡ hearing from you!
Tap one of the reaction boxes below to let me know what you thought of this post. It would really help me to make some improvements in the future!
Be sure to follow and subscribe so that you don't miss anymore of my brilliant posts and share this with a friend who might find this article interesting too!
See you next time,
Bye,
XOX, Juliette
Website used for research:
History Today
My social media handles:
My Instagram
My YouTube channel
My main blog:
Keeping Up With Juliette
Comments
Post a Comment