Education is one of the themes in both Down and Out in Paris and London and Stray Dogs. Other than democracy, Grace Lee Boggs also encompasses education in the dialectical process, through group discussion to instruct and to trigger creations for the youth in
community. In Stray Dogs, the poem Man Jiang Hong might infer that the tramping reality will not last too long for the protagonist. Being able to sing and cry for the lines composed in classical Chinese denotes that the protagonist is not undereducated, and being educated, even if not well-educated, is possibly suggesting the way out of the homeless life. On the same issue, Orwell makes profounder comments. He is concerned about not only the necessity of education, or the literary tastes, but also the critical thinking which should be taken as the weapon against the exploitative formulation of the society:
Paddy is a figure Orwell encounters on the roads. He is not so miserable as the homeless who are illiterate, even though “he [has] a kind of loathing for books” (175). Nonetheless, his topics of conversation are limited. He only talks about “the shame and comedown of being a tramp, and the best way of getting a free meal” (174). For Orwell, “[h]is ignorance was limitless and appalling” (174):
He once asked me [Orwell], for instance, whether Napoleon lived before Jesus Christ or after. Another time, when I was looking into a bookshop window, he grew very perturbed because one of the books was called Of the Imitation of Christ. He took this for blasphemy.
‘What de hell do dey want to go imitatin’ of Him for?’ he demanded angrily. (174-75) On the way from Romton to Edbury, they pass by a public library. When Orwell invites Paddy to come in to take a rest, Paddy rejects by saying “de sight of all dat bloody print makes me sick,” and chooses to wait outside (175). In the following paragraphs, Orwell records Paddy’s comments on the work and employment status. When he sees the elders working, he says bitterly that the old men are robbing the youth of the job opportunities. He also distastes the foreigners: “all foreigners to him were ‘dem bloody dagoes’—for, according to his theory, foreigners were responsible for unemployment” (175).
Even though Orwell does not make further arguments, this passage is interesting and apocalyptic in view of the xenophobia permeating in regimes that blame the high
unemployment rate for foreign workers, or the border issues in the international situation nowadays. During the tramping days, the observations might propel Orwell to make the implication that some seeming theoretical but in fact anti-intellectual policy might derive from the inadvertent knowledge spread among particular elites and the masses. With the foreshadowing introduction of Paddy’s educational level, this passage exposes that decontextualized critiques and lacking humanistic knowledge might bring about thoughtless attributions or inappropriate policies.
This danger of believing in plausible theories is also present in the dialogue between Orwell and a young carpenter out of work in Lower Binfield spike. In the introduction to the young man, Orwell creates an atmosphere that the young man is educated by remarking that
“he [has] literary tastes, too” and mentioning that he carries “a copy of Quentin Durward in his pocket” (209). However, the tone shifts swiftly when Orwell mentions the wastage in the workhouse. Here is the young carpenter’s response:
‘They have to do it,’ he said. ‘If they made these places too comfortable, you’d have all the scum of the country flocking into them. It’s only the bad food as keeps all that scum away. These here tramps are too lazy to work, that’s all that’s wrong with them. You don’t want to go encouraging of them. They’re scum.’ (209)
Orwell taunts that he has “awakened the pew-renter3 who sleeps in every English workman”
(209). It is quite weird and absurd to see that a portion of tramps despise each other by alienating themselves from the others and speak for the capital holders. Today similar discourse is still prevalent, scorning that the homeless deserve the bad life because of their indolence, dirtiness, love for freedom, etc., one hundred years after Orwell’s investigation. Nonetheless, recalling Orwell’s theory that the beggars pay for their living by “standing out of doors in all
3 A pew-renter signifies the one who is able to afford the rental of the pew in church, mostly from the wealthy class.
weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc.” and that the only mistake they make is to “choos[e] a trade at which it is impossible to get rich,” we find that the beggars are not lazy at all (191). They are despised simply because their business is not profitable and they are forced to lead a filthy and indecent life. To rectify this biased cognition, what is needed is not only compassion, but proper education of dialectics and updated sociological knowledge should also be included so that the humanity can remain possible in the society permeated with capitalistic ideology.