Such, Such Were the Joys

“Sin was not necessarily something that you did: it might be something that happened to you.”

Here, Orwell references the idea that the preparatory school codes are impossible to adhere to. His use of this epigram (a short, pithy saying) underlines the role of shame in The Normalization of Abuse.

“I did not wet my bed again—at least, I did wet it once again, and received another beating, after which the trouble stopped. So perhaps this barbarous remedy does work, though at a heavy price, I have no doubt.”

The idea that the abuse Orwell sustained had a practical purpose is an early example of an ironic aside. Even though Orwell is criticizing the preparatory school system, he concedes that some of its methods produce results. However, the “price” was psychological trauma and internalized shame.

“Sambo had two great ambitions. One was to attract titled boys to the school, and the other was to train up pupils to win scholarships at public schools, above all at Eton.”

The background motivations of St Cyprian’s administrators are laid out in this passage: prestige and profit. Orwell uses simple, direct sentences to lend extra weight to his revelation of Sambo’s motives.

“This business of making a gifted boy’s career depend on a competitive examination, taken when he is only twelve or thirteen is an evil thing at best…At St Cyprian’s the whole process was frankly a preparation for a sort of confidence trick.”

Point of view is used here to highlight the unfairness of the scholarship class system. The term “confidence trick” nicely summarizes Orwell’s stance on how preparatory schools used middle-class students for their own gain while eroding their self-esteem.

“I recall positive orgies of dates, with the keener boys leaping up and down in their places in their eagerness to shout out the right answers, and at the same time not feeling the faintest interest in the meaning of the mysterious events they were naming.”

This passage highlights the lack of any practical education at preparatory schools. Orwell uses an anecdote of mindlessly quoting dates to convey this point.

“You eat too much, that’s why. You wolf down enormous meals, and then when you come here you’re half asleep. Go on, now, put your back into it. You’re not thinking. Your brain doesn’t sweat.”

Sambo’s ridiculous reasoning illustrates the role of indoctrination and shame at Orwell’s school. Despite underfeeding the students, he claims that they overeat, which adversely affects their academic performance. The unscientific nature of St Cyprian’s curriculum is also lampooned here.

“‘Your parents wouldn’t be able to afford it.’ This phrase pursued me throughout my schooldays.”

This passage encapsulates the theme of Classism in Great Britain. As a middle-class scholarship student, Orwell does not enjoy the resources his wealthier classmates do and is regularly shamed for his relative poverty.

“It is not easy to convey to a grown-up person the sense of strain, of nerving oneself for some terrible, all-deciding combat, as the date of the examination crept nearer.”

This quote neatly captures the point of view of a St Cyprian scholarship student. The dread and despair students feel toward the exams they are expected to ace is presented as a common emotion in the essay.

“And do you think it’s quite fair to us, the way you’re behaving? After all we’ve done for you? You do know what we’ve done for you, don’t you?”

Here, the key figure, Flip, employs manipulation on the young Orwell. To ensure his dedication to doing well on his exams, she is attempting to fill him with guilt and shame regarding his scholarship status at the school.

“Flip and Sambo had chosen to befriend me, and their friendship included canings, reproaches and humiliations, which were good for me and saved me from an office stool.”

Orwell uses irony to great effect here, outlining the justification of abuse at St Cyprian’s. The juxtaposition of “befriend” with “canings, reproaches and humiliations” highlights how young Orwell’s abusers present themselves as his saviors.

“As usual, I did not see the sound commercial reason for this underfeeding On the whole I accepted Sambo’s view that a boy’s appetite is a sort of morbid growth which should be kept in check as much as possible.”

Orwell again utilizes irony to drive home a point about the almost laughable reasoning behind St Cyprian’s neglect of its students. The passage emphasizes A Child’s Worldview as a naïve young Orwell accepts these claims as fact.

“It is not easy for me to think of my schooldays without seeming to breathe in a whiff of something cold and evil-smelling—a sort of compound of sweaty stockings, dirty towels, faecal smells blowing along corridors, forks with old food between the prongs, neck-of-mutton stew, and the banging doors of the lavatories and the echoing chamber-pots in the dormitories.”

Orwell employs vivid descriptive imagery here to afford a firsthand experience of the neglect at St Cyprian. The immersive sensory detail accentuates the disgust that a preparatory school student would be exposed to.

“Your home might be far from perfect, but at least it was a place ruled by love rather than by fear, where you did not have to be perpetually on your guard against the people surrounding you.”

Here, Orwell lays out his critical position that day schools should be instituted as a norm in Britain, instead of preparatory schools at which students are boarders. The strong language (“love” versus “perpetually on your guard”) emphasizes his point.