Down and Out in Paris and London- George Orwell

While wondering about how to start this new chapter in my project which I wanted to focus on the support side of homelessness and the housing problem, I began reading 'Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell.

Down and Out in Paris and London is difficult to understand wether its an autobiography or partly fiction, but it describes Orwell's experiences living in poverty while he spent time in Paris and London. Although he comments in the introduction "I think I can say that I have exaggerated nothing except in so far as all writers exaggerate by selecting. I did not feel that I had to describe the events in the exact order in which they happened, but everything I have described did take place at one time or another", which points to the fact its more of an autobiography rather than fiction.

The first half of his book described his experiences trying to get by on very low income while living in the slums of Paris. He was constantly having to pawn his items and then buy them back again when he had made enough money to do so. He mentioned how he had to avoid seeing his land-lady because he was nearly always low on rent and didn't want to be kicked out of his flat. These experiences that he described and many more made me think about, who do people turn to when they have nothing and can't afford to survive. Many will turn to friends and family but what if they have none or those people don't have enough money to help get one out of their situation. In his book Orwell speaks about when he didn't have enough money to buy any food and he had no job, so he reached out to his friend for help. This turned out to be no good because when he visited his friend, he saw that he had even less money to his name and hadn't eat for a few days, which meant he didn't have enough energy to even get out of bed. The only way to help him was by selling some of his own belongings to get enough money to buy very basic food, which after giving to his friend, gave them both enough energy to begin going in search of jobs. Orwell comments upon this lack of energy, "being underfed, can interest yourself in nothing". He goes onto say, "Only food could rouse you. You discover that a man who has gone even a week on bread and margarine is not a man any longer, only a belly with a few accessory organs". Through this chapters explanation of what its like to feel so hungry that you can't do anything, has reminded me that many of us take food for granted, but what are we meant to do if we cant afford any and have none.

Orwell also explains what its like to be embarrassed about having hardly any money to afford food. "You go to the greengrocer's to spend a franc on a kilogram of potatoes. But one of the pieces that make up the franc is a Belgian piece, and the shopman refuses it. You slink out of the shop, and can never go there again." This helped inform me about what it must feel like to have nothing or very little and having to ask people for help. But if homeless/ people on the poverty line don't ask for any help than they will be even more worse off, but who do they ask if they can't turn to family or friends. The government are cutting down on how much benefits people receive, which means they have less money now than ever.

Down and Out in Paris and London, has helped make me think about the necessities that people need to survive. Along with having a roof of some sort over their head, they need food and water to get by day to day. Professor Green in his documentary commented about how more than ever people are turning toward charities of help. And the connection with the Bible on the table of the drug addicts tent has also made me think about the importance of Charities with supporting those who have the very least.

The next development of my project is going to look into the help that different Charities do for the people who have the very least. But to start I'm going to look at how they provide food, due to reading about the obvious importance of it in George Orwells book.