George Orwell's 'Burmese Days' Review

Solution Preview

Review of George Orwell's 'Burmese Days'

It was 1934 and British novelist George Orwell's novel 'Burmese Days' was first published in the USA. It is a tale set in the waning days of the British Empire, specifically the British Raj. Material for this novel came from Orwell's own experience (real name Eric Arthur Blair) in the years 1922 to 1927 when he served as a police officer for the Indian Imperial Force. By the 19th century, the Empire has placed the management of Burma under the British Raj. The resulting book is a fantastic mirror of the Burmese society that was under these particular set of conditions, giving readers a window into this particular period in time on the kind of lives and concerns of the natives and the European masters. In this narrative I will be presenting a reflection of life during the colonial period from both the European and the Native viewpoints and how these all shaped ideas of identity and contributed to the eventual crumbling of the empire. The political and social ideas that the author had is presented by the many voices of the characters in this particular novel. The thing is, it is not necessarily just that one voice - it is the voice of so many coming from different perspectives and from the kind that populate the British Raj from the servant class to the upper class and the colonial masters. The socio-colonial divide is laid bare in this book and readers get taken back to an era when Britain was the most powerful colonial power on the planet. many say that it is a dark portrait of the British Raj but I am of the opinion that it is a realistic depiction of Burma in this particular period as can be discerned from this passage (Chapter 19):

"The heat was growing worse and worse. April was nearly over, but there was no hope of rain for another three weeks, five weeks it might be. Even the lovely transient dawns were spoiled by the thought of the long, blinding hours to come, when one's head would ache and the glare would penetrate through every covering and glue up one's eyelids with restless sleep. No one, Oriental or European, could keep awake in the heat of the day without a struggle; at night, on the other hand, with the howling dogs and the pools of sweat that collected and tormented one's prickly heat, no one could sleep."

Of the Colonial Empire

What can we discern about the Colonial Empire in the book? First, we are provided a view of the social structure? How was the Burmese colony ran then? What kind of social hierarchy did they have? What were the hopes and dreams of the people then? How did they move up and down in society? Who held power and authority? What kind of culture did the natives have? How was the cultural and social differences manifested in the lives of the people ...