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A review by donnaadouglas
Burmese Days by George Orwell
5.0
George Orwell was so ahead of his time, and Burmese Days, in my opinion, surpasses my love for 1984 and Animal Farm (and I loved both of those as well!)
The book tells of John Flory, a man who has lived in Burma (now Myanmar) for 15 years, who respects the country and its culture, but who struggles with the balance of fitting in with locals vs fitting in with the other English (all living a colonial ex-pat existence and sharing very little of Flory’s world view). Flory is by no means perfect, he seeks acceptance from others, and often behaves horribly in order not to rock the boat (his treatment of his Indian friend, Dr Veraswami, for instance), and whilst championing the cause of befriending ‘natives’, his own white supremacy filters through (his treatment of his Burmese mistress, for example).
Enter Elizabeth Lackersteen, a 22 year old, beautiful new arrival to the area. She arrives at the height of Flory’s idealist wish for someone to understand him, and the two spend the remainder of the novel failing to understand one another, whilst their incompatibility is obvious to the reader, and this ultimately leads to the tragic climax of the novel.
And then there’s U Po Kyin, a Burmese town magistrate whose machinations and plotting drive a lot of the action in the novel. Indeed, he is the first character we meet and his motivations set up the book from the start. His motivation being social climbing. He wants to disgrace another ‘native’ - Dr Veraswami - in order to raise his own position (to be the most favoured ‘native’ in town). It’s all complete pandering to the English, seen to be the highest on the social strata. Would this social climbing exist without the English though? Most likely. U Po Kyin is clearly not a nice chap, and clearly is an egocentric social climber. I’ve thought a lot about Orwell’s socialist beliefs and I wonder if U Po Kyin further drives the view that raising anyone (regardless of ethnicity) above another is completely wrong, and leads humans to behave despicably. No one should aspire to look down at anyone else.
I loved that this novel was so real, and is still so relevant today. Racism still exists. The colonialist attitude still exists (don’t talk to me about Brexsh*t!). Social climbing still exists. People still fail to communicate well what they want in a relationship. People still struggle with their sense of self and trying to fit in.
Parts of this novel are hard to read, and make me feel so ashamed of Britain’s colonial history, but this is why books like this need to be read. We need to confront this and use our feelings of shame to move past this and create a better future for all through equality. One has to wonder if that may even have been Orwell’s purpose with this book. Told you - ahead of his time!
The book tells of John Flory, a man who has lived in Burma (now Myanmar) for 15 years, who respects the country and its culture, but who struggles with the balance of fitting in with locals vs fitting in with the other English (all living a colonial ex-pat existence and sharing very little of Flory’s world view). Flory is by no means perfect, he seeks acceptance from others, and often behaves horribly in order not to rock the boat (his treatment of his Indian friend, Dr Veraswami, for instance), and whilst championing the cause of befriending ‘natives’, his own white supremacy filters through (his treatment of his Burmese mistress, for example).
Enter Elizabeth Lackersteen, a 22 year old, beautiful new arrival to the area. She arrives at the height of Flory’s idealist wish for someone to understand him, and the two spend the remainder of the novel failing to understand one another, whilst their incompatibility is obvious to the reader, and this ultimately leads to the tragic climax of the novel.
And then there’s U Po Kyin, a Burmese town magistrate whose machinations and plotting drive a lot of the action in the novel. Indeed, he is the first character we meet and his motivations set up the book from the start. His motivation being social climbing. He wants to disgrace another ‘native’ - Dr Veraswami - in order to raise his own position (to be the most favoured ‘native’ in town). It’s all complete pandering to the English, seen to be the highest on the social strata. Would this social climbing exist without the English though? Most likely. U Po Kyin is clearly not a nice chap, and clearly is an egocentric social climber. I’ve thought a lot about Orwell’s socialist beliefs and I wonder if U Po Kyin further drives the view that raising anyone (regardless of ethnicity) above another is completely wrong, and leads humans to behave despicably. No one should aspire to look down at anyone else.
I loved that this novel was so real, and is still so relevant today. Racism still exists. The colonialist attitude still exists (don’t talk to me about Brexsh*t!). Social climbing still exists. People still fail to communicate well what they want in a relationship. People still struggle with their sense of self and trying to fit in.
Parts of this novel are hard to read, and make me feel so ashamed of Britain’s colonial history, but this is why books like this need to be read. We need to confront this and use our feelings of shame to move past this and create a better future for all through equality. One has to wonder if that may even have been Orwell’s purpose with this book. Told you - ahead of his time!