Catharsis and returning to self in Jeorge Orwell’s "Coming up for air" in the context of self-belonging

Размещено на http://allbest.ru

Baku Engineering University

Catharsis and returning to self in George Orwell's “Coming up for air” in the context of self-belonging

Khanim Jafarly, PhD candidate, Lecturer

at the English Language Department

Baku, Azerbaijan

Abstract

As Orwell witnessed both world wars, depression and post-war antihuman society are the two main themes of his works. “Coming Up for Air” is a social work in which Orwell's socialist ideas are wonderfully reflected. The article discusses how nostalgia affects a person through the character Bowling. Pre-war and post-war comparisons make the socialist and humanistic views of George Orwell clear for readers. orwell literary british utopian novel

The author suggests that war can only bring bad traumas and make people in the societies antihuman. After reading the novel, like Orwell's other novels we think that war is never a solution.

George Orwell's utopic and dystopic ideas are determined via Bowling in the novel. On the whole, though the novel is classified as a realistic prose, the notion of war and its expected implications establish utopic version of peace.

Bowling's representing peace adds a very different aesthetic atmosphere to the novel. The author suggests utopic peace as an alternative to realistic war. The implementation of this notion of peace directly goes through catharsis and returning to self. In this case, the concepts of war and peace replace one another. It can be noted that utopic bias in the work have been given in a realistic direction. Bowling represents not individual, but common realities.

The problem of destruction of self in the novel grabs attention as a nuance serving to the unity of society. That is to say, physical and spiritual problems of post-war people are turned into chaos causing to be the problem of the society in a broad sense.

The solutions the author offers are remarkable in this respect. With the help of Bowling's characteristic features and his bellicosity, the author concludes that utopia is actually a small concept, but people exaggarate it.

The novel's structure and George Orwell's simple and understandable narration enable readers to comprehend this conclusion's literary and aesthetic sides in a simple way.

Based on Bowling's acts and lifestyle, idea-content features of the work have been analyzed in the article and the findings have been generalized in the context of catharsis and returning to self.

Key words: Orwell, totalitarianism, trauma, war, nostalgia.

Анотація

Introduction

The novel “Coming Up for Air” is a pregnant work in terms of the themes of war, antihuman and freedom. Deformation of people who have daily life rules results in the deformation of the society too. Humans' wishing to go back to their past, for instance to their childhood or teen ages is their search for spiritual peace. All the reasons creating these inner crises are wars. Though the author speaks of only one exact war in the work, we can interpret it as impications caused by wars in general. We can associate George Orwell's pen with a photo camera rather than a painter's brush. Since the description of the scenes in the work are so realistic that there is no use in thinking of adding anything here. It somehow decreases the aesthetic value of the work with regard to literal studies, but it is understandable. Orwell doesn't limit war with the period it begins and ends in the novel. Postwar after the war is given consideration to as the continuation of war in the work.

Statement of the problem. George Orwell sets forth the problem of self and self-destruction and effects of war on both of them in “Coming Up for Air”. We can see issues such as antihuman, self-awareness, self-destruction in other novels by the author too. “In the writer's novels such as “1984”, “Homeage to Catalonia”, “Animal Farm” the description of these problems are of great importance”. (Orwell, 2010) The real goal of the author in this novel is comparing the arisen past in human's mind with Orwell's society and show the clear the effects of war on people. War is never a good idea, whether the period before that happens, or the things it brings to lives of humans. Traumas and disorders it causes in individuals most of the time cover the whole generation afterwards, not only the ones who are directly impacted. Because a range of psychological results can be observed in the people who experienced it. Taking into consideration that stress is the main factor in almost all diseases, according to medicine, postwar trauma can prolong and goes on with further generations. An affected woman gives birth to a newborn that is in turn is affected in his mother's womb. So the impications follow that baby in his toddler, child and teen periods. It goes on and on like this. This is just a simple example. As a romantic realistic author, Orwell states this problem not only for his period and generation, but for all the further generations of the humankind. He intends to warn people off the dangers of war and inspire them to try to avoid it for the sake of their own selves. Human is the only creature that harms himself. He invented weapons, bombs and wars and through all of these human destroys himself.

Research analysis. Orwell criticises Americanised worthlessness of latter-day life in almost all the pages of the novel. While reading the work one identifies with many feelings of the character(s). Especially the modern time readers of today can reflect on myriad feelings in the abyss of loneliness, depression and feeling far away from their selves which proves Orwell's being a talented writer of all times. The scenes of bombing or fights being described in the work give an uncomplicated and comrehensible viewpoint of the author on wars. He loathes war and all the subsequences of it. Contradicting the war scenes Orwell has many parts where he describes picteresque views and beautiful spots of England that provide readers with exciting and cognitive delight. In this research the prose, narration and comparisons of the writer have been utilized and analysed in an artistic viewpoint. Orwell is a journalist but also a writer. He well combines his analytical and writing skills in order to render his message to readers. And this is a kind of skill not many authors have mastered.

Purpose of the article. The main objective of the article is to analyse political and humanistic views of Orwell according to the contemporary terms. In order to implement the author's “testimony” the article reminds people to be well aware of the pre-war and post-war effects once again and act accordingly. The topic of war is captivating as a central line of the problems of antihuman and self-understanding and introspection in the article. Be that as it may, war theme is broad, a problem is analyzed concerning to a few distinct components in the article.

Presenting main material

The primary image of the work, Bowling has a very ordinary life style. He can never feel adjusted to contemporary life. He is very anxious for the upcoming wartime which will probably be followed with food shortage, wounds, bombs and cruelty and totalitarism afterwards. “I can see the war that's coming and I can see the after-war, the food- queues and the secret police and the loudspeakers telling you what to think” (Orwell, 2004: p. 3, ch. 1) Feeling very overwhelmed about the expected war and his daily life, being a husband, a father and also a worker he takes some days off his work and decides to visit his childhood place. “When individuals are dissatisfied with their situations, they become distressed suffering mental and emotional disorders” (Koseman, 2016: 868) The issue of sense of belonging is touched upon here. Increasing technology and updates constrict minimalistic life, its simple pleasures and customs.

Everything happens so quickly. People nearly have no time to feel their emotions. So those emotions get intense gradually and blast in minor situations or make them ill.

Technolgocial advances give people comfort but also take away their humane pleasures. Taking into account that one can feel happy even when he is tired after a very long working day, machines make us feel like themselves, robotic.

Bowling represents lonely and desperate new generation. This generation first was formed in the World War 1. Before that many fights, war took place in the history of humankind but that was different with modern artillery. Technological equipment and development - bombs, machine guns increased the number of deaths. This was the first war in which artillery was used against humanity. Modern weapons have destroyed people's will and ability to defend themselves.

Contemporary world has no space for traditional farm life. Urbanization is everywhere. And thinking that wars are added to this modernity, how can a modern person not be depressed? Bombs, guns, artillery everywhere, wounded and killed young soldiers and also affect civil people. Bowling intends to feel happiness he once had when he was young before the start of war, before the war destroys everything. In other words, he wants to “come up for air”. “Fishing is the opposite of war”. (Orwell, 2004: p. 2, ch. 5) The notion nostalgia comes forward here. “The word nostalgia comes from the Greek word nostos, which means "returning home," and algia means "longing or pain." Nostalgia literally means "homesickness"” (Nourmohammadi, 2011:9).

Nostalgia makes one wish to return. Return to somewhere you felt happy before, you had happy memories previously. Establishing a sense of returning to one's comfortable memories, indeed to one's own self, nostalgia can be triggered by a smell, act, place, taste.

In psychological point of view, Bowling consciously or unconsciously reacts to nostalgia he feels in different ways. Nostalgia is not just a sorrowful emotion for the past but it creates a mental pause that gives a chance to Bowling to make himself ready to face the difficult living condition after the war. Visiting that place and feeling his childhood and boyhood memories have no use in appearance, but eventually you come up for air. He comes up for air out of the trashcan where he feels like he is trapped. Bowling thinks “the dustbin the people are in nearly reaches up to the stratosphere” (Orwell, 2004: p. 4, ch. 5).

Orwell criticised Soviet Communist Party for its cruelties. Though he also disliked capitalism. He claimed that no reign or regime can be normal in case people rule it.

Because through centuries humanity has changed a lot because of wars, various regimes and these created antihumans who can't rule any government in a democratic way. “According to Freud, an individual's characters consists of three parts:Id, Ego and Superego”(Nourmohammadi, 2011: 8). Let's analyse Bowling in this term. Bowling's Id demonstrated who he is at present. His responsibilities, his duties and his personality. As a person he is a normal citizen who belongs to a working class. But Id knows no moral rules and basically seeks comfort. So his Id pushes him to go back to his childhood place to feel safe when a war is expected in England. His Ego alerts him about reality and invites him to logical thinking. Ego serves to be the negotiator to connect id with the rules of the real world. When he visits his hometown he expected to find that his home would still be there. But he can't find many things as he left behind.

We can say that here his Superego comes front. “Superego is conscious part of the brain that acts according to morality. It has been formed during human growth under the care of parents and other role models. The superego punishes the human for doing something wrong based on what we have learned and considered as a value" (Freud, 2011: 72). So Superego reminds him of his responsibilities and is a part of his maturity. Ego keeps him thinking that he belongs to the past. But Superego lets him know that he is in the present. Nostalgia does not only make Bowling feel sad, but it also play a role of a painkiller for the disease of modernity in Bowling's spirit.

Conclusions

Orwell undelibaretly interferes with his protogonist's speech and changes his narration. That's why we feel somehow Orwell, an intellectual writer narrates it, rather than a middle- aged, fat, ordinary salesman. The image is not very persuasive. Since in order to load all the goal onto the character writers need to be off-character. Orwell's political pen suggests that socialism is very crucial and can never be defeated in England. So, socialism's turning into totalitarianism is totally uncommon and a new risk towards humanity, Orwell foresaw. As most of his books, in this novel he also called people to be alerted of this danger and smell the coffee. Orwell is distraught about the post-war and antihumans formed after post-war more than the war itself. He well knows that war will set forth totalitarianism, secret police, punishment cells. The author wants to remind people of the after-effects of war, make them remember the long-forgotten values of conventional English life. And while he is pessimistic about those subtle nuances, he somehow also expresses his hope for the future not losing his belief that people will remember their previous life and try their best to achieve that again. The people who lived in the wartime and got affected by it have mixed and complicated emotions. They feel attached to their pre-war tranquil life that they lost in the war. Even post-war period can't recover that peace most of the time. So those people become traumatic and lose their sense of belonging to their present. Orwell, calling himself social democrat critices socialism too, mainly Stalin's period. In this respect we can say he condemns war, totalitarian governments, and imperialism.

Bibliography

1. Orwell G., 2004. Coming up for air. 288 p. URL: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200031h.html. (date of publishing: 10.05.2021)

2. Nourmohammadi. Sh. 2011. Nostalgia in George Orwell's Coming Up For Air: thesis. ... M.S: Linkoping University. 42 p.

3. Freud. S., 2010. The Dissection of the Psychical Personality. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis: Scribd. 67-72 p. URL: https://www.scribd.com/book/351501259/Introductory-Lectures-on-Psychoanalysis

4. Koseman, Z., 2016. “Psychoanalitical Outlook for Orwell's Coming Up for Air, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty- Four”, Inonu University. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences. No 15(3). URL: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/ download/article-file/223084

5. Oruell, C. 2010. Se^ilmi? osorlori: kitab. §orq-Qorb. 640 s.

References

1. Orwell G. (2004) Coming up for air. 288 p. URL: https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200031h.html. (date of publishing: 10.05.2021)

2. Nourmohammadi. Sh. (2011) Nostalgia in George Orwell's Coming Up For Air: thesis. ... M.S: Linkoping University. 42 p.

3. Freud. S. (2010) The Dissection of the Psychical Personality. New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis: Scribd. 67-72 p. URL: https://www.scribd.com/book/351501259/Introductory-Lectures-on-Psychoanalysis

4. Koseman, Z. (2016) “Psychoanalitical Outlook for Orwell's Coming Up for Air, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty- Four”, Inonu University. Gaziantep University Journal of Social Sciences. No 15(3). URL: https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/ download/article-file/223084

5. Oruell, C. (2010) Se^ilmi? osorlori: kitab. [Selected Works] §orq-Qorb. 640 s. [in Azerbaijani]

Размещено на Allbest.ru