The Road to Wigan Pier

Even though Orwell has spent time living among the poorest people in Britain, he concedes that unemployment will not be solved by everyone befriending homeless people, who are not representative of the wider working-class existence. Though homeless people welcomed Orwell into their midst, “normal” working-class people treated him with more suspicion. Even after many months living among the miners, both they and Orwell were all very aware that he was not one of them. Some people—especially those with radical politics—pretend that this kind of wall does not exist, but Orwell views this attitude with skepticism; he feels that many anti-imperialists and socialists claim to want change but don’t truly seem to believe it can happen, and therefore only mock one another instead of doing anything. Indeed, many of these middle-class people benefit from the systems that they criticize and may not want to endanger their comfortable lives.

Moreover, while many people are sympathetic to the idea that miners should be paid more, they do not want to pay higher prices for their fuel. Orwell explains that simply wishing that the class system would vanish will not make it happen, so people need to understand the ramifications of the political goal; getting rid of the class system will mean that people will need to get rid of the part of themselves that has internalized it.