Orwell's Roses

“The trees were reminders of both our own ephemerality and their endurance long beyond ours, and in their uprightness they stood in the landscape like guardians and witnesses.”

Solnit discusses the historical resonance of trees, noting that they live much longer than people; trees here represent legacies. This partly explains Solnit’s interest in revisiting Orwell’s roses: Their existence marks a different kind of legacy for him, in which aesthetic pleasure and the enjoyment of nature are as enduring as his political and ethical stances. Solnit’s simile personifies these trees as protectors and as observers; they preserve a long view of history.

“Medieval theologians speculated that there were roses in the Garden of Eden, but the thorns came after the fall from grace.”

Roses symbolize many things, such as love, romance, passion, and sacrifice. In addition, they’re often associated with the feminine; thus, the thorns indicate the woman’s negative aspects. In the above association, the thorns symbolize Eve’s disobedience in eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; that is, the thorns were the price for her loss of innocence.

“It is often implied (or shouted) that if you enjoy hedgehogs you do not care about the evils of the age, but they routinely coexist in experience and imagination.”

To some, the enjoyment of nature—e.g., hedgehogs—preempts a political conscience. That is, to revel in beauty or in nature is to ignore or to dismiss political struggle and social injustice. Solnit posits the opposite: Enjoying nature is, instead, an integral part of forming a political consciousness; in fact, nature itself—and preserving, valuing, and encouraging it—is a site of political tension. Hence, the title of Part 1, “The Prophet and the Hedgehog,” associates the lofty goals of philosophers with the earthy respite of wild creatures.