Such, Such Were the Joys

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.