One of
the things that struck me reading Homage
to Catalonia is how much I didn’t know about the Spanish Civil War, and how
much having that knowledge really informs a text that is taking place within
narrative’s present tense. When I originally began reading the story I skipped
the introduction, as I always seem to do, because I find they sometimes give an
analytical reading of the entire narrative that may give away developments I
don’t want spoiled. However, after having read the opening chapters of Homage to Catalonia I thought there
would be something within the introduction that would give me some grounding to
the situation that Orwell found himself in when he joined the militia.
Thankfully it was there and I chided myself for thinking that a nonfiction
introduction would work in the same way as the introduction to a fictional
work.
With
that understanding, going back and rereading the opening chapters, while a
little more informed, still left me, for some reason, unable to be completely
grounded while reading the text. Perhaps I expected more of a straightforward chronology
of the war, as opposed to Orwell’s limited view and opining of what was going
on around his area specifically.
That
being said, while reading the memoir, I was still able to be caught up in
Orwell’s shifting views of the conflict that he had become a part of. His realizations
that this war was not like the ones he had expected and how the lack of organization
and shifting allegiances/goals of the politics were dismaying were fascinating
to read. I think upon reading a more straight forward history of the war, being
able to have a more concrete understanding of where this specific memoir exists
in the larger frame of the conflict and then returning to read it again is something
I’ll have to do, to fill in those gaps I’m disappointed in myself for having.
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