In the Fall semester of 2019, I took a course on Europe in the Era of World Wars (HIS 313). One of my favorite aspects of this course is what many students dread: the readings. I ended up reading 10 books by the end of this course, an accomplishment unparalleled by baby Kaitlyn, when she was reading books in the library to earn AR points! This is perhaps my favorite assignment from the course. For two of the common readings, we were tasked with writing a response to a prompt or developing our own analysis. As I read George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier, I noticed a pattern and this analysis of euphemistic language resulted. I was drawn not only to what the characters said but how they said them and what the implications of their speech were for the poor during the Great Depression in England. In doing so, I argue that Orwell illustrates the power of word choice as a proponent of the systematic, socioeconomic oppression of the working class and its subsequent strengthening of political Right’s Fascist appeal.
