An Orwell classic, though comparatively one of his less-known works, Keep the Aspidistra Flying is a satirical portrayal of the significance of money, and consequently, of people’s seemingly inescapable dependence on it. The main theme –easily the most repeated word throughout the story– is money. An unlikable protagonist during most times, though immensely relatable and an impassioned poet, Gordon Comstock has “declared war on money”.
Driven by his love for poetry, Gordon turns down ‘good jobs’, to break free from the world’s ‘money worshipping system’. However, by working at a bookstore at less than half the salary of his previous ‘good’ job he comes to the realization, as though a late epiphany, that there is indeed no escape from money.
Gordon could barely afford his rent, and he argued that poverty’s greatest asset was loneliness, a place where a writer could not “create”. This redirects one to the importance and dependence on money. According to this premise, without money Gordon could not create.
The protagonist finds himself imprisoned by the very same thing he had been trying to set himself free from, that is: money. Getting on thirty, everything is relative to money for Gordon: his charm, success, social-life, and even the time it takes for him to shave. Ultimately, Gordon falls into the very same pit he once criticized everyone for following, and ends up succumbing to money.
Orwell’s use of satire is evident throughout the novel. One cannot help but smile throughout most of the book, enjoying the quintessential Orwellian touches of dark comedy and detailed character descriptions. The end, too, leaves the reader thoroughly satisfied.
“He had a feeling that if you genuinely despise money you can keep going somehow, like the birds of the air. He forgot that the birds of the air don’t pay room-rent. The poet starving in a garret – but starving, somehow, not uncomfortably – that was his vision of himself.”
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Nobody Owens is raised by ghosts after the murder of his family. Belonging in neither the world of the living nor the dead, the boy is faced with great danger in the graveyard, and an even greater danger on the other side, where his family’s murderer awaits.
