24 pages • 48 minutes read
George OrwellSuch, Such Were the Joys
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1952A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
George Orwell
Orwell is the author of the essay, and his younger self is also the main character of the narrative. Throughout the essay, the preparatory school experiences of the younger Orwell highlight the overall effect that preparatory schools have on British society and how the class system is upheld. As a student from a middle-class background, the young Orwell is a “scholarship student” who is admitted to the school on reduced fees in hopes that he will pass entrance exams into a prestigious public school. The knowledge of this arrangement creates a deep sense of “hatred” in young Orwell (378), yet he has a paradoxical desire to please the school administrators. His contradictory impulses emphasize the impressionable nature of A Child’s Worldview.
As the essay goes on, the key figure of the young Orwell develops so that the initial character presented at the start of the essay is very different from the one at the end. This character development is a good example of Orwell’s use of nonfiction narrative in this personal essay. By transforming the “main character” of the essay from an anxious yet hopeful boy into a jaded and cynical pre-adolescent, Orwell underlines the harmful effect the indoctrination of preparatory schools has on students.
Mr. Vaughan Wilkes (“Sambo”)
Within the narrative, “Sambo” is the headmaster of St Cyprian’s Preparatory School and its chief disciplinarian. A typical “social climber” of the Edwardian era, he hopes to make a decent fortune from his work at the preparatory school and, in turn, afford his children a chance to increase their social status. Sambo sees in the young Orwell a “good speculation” (378): an intelligent middle-class boy who can enhance the school’s reputation by getting excellent exam results and gaining entrance to a prestigious public school.
To get the most out of his speculation, Sambo largely employs physical abuse, his favorite implements alternating between a riding crop and a cane. As an educator, Sambo is indifferent to whether his students learn anything practical. His goal is to prepare them for public school examinations, however useless this knowledge may be, so that they can bring greater prestige (and money) to St Cyprian’s.
Mrs. Cicely Wilkes (“Flip”)
Sambo’s wife, “Flip,” is the hidden force behind the success of St Cyprian’s. Though never directly involved in the physical punishment of students, she nevertheless emotionally abuses and manipulates them to achieve the school’s chief goals. In this way, she is a far more important administrator than Sambo, for although he is headmaster, it is she who controls the morale and enthusiasm of the student body. Flip is particularly loathed by Orwell, who sees her as “capriciously” vacillating between a “flirtatious queen” and a dehumanized pair of “deep-set, accusing eyes” (383).
Flip enjoys ingratiating herself with the wealthiest boys in the school and is presented as a shallow figure by Orwell. Her greatest strength lies in her ability to shame students for anything from alleged sexual depravity to ingratitude for the opportunity of attending an institution like St Cyprian’s. This last talent has a particular effect on Orwell, who develops a keen sense of indebtedness and hatred toward her and the school.
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