Chapter 4 Summary and Analysis

Industrial towns spring up in unorganized fashion, resulting in each town being a labyrinth of smoke-blackened small brick houses surrounded by miry alleys, tiny cindered yards, and stinking dust-bins. Indoor plumbing is rare, and most people still use a backyard privy. Backyard areas are just large enough to hold a privy and a bin for trash. Most homes in the areas Orwell examines were build during the 1870s or 1880s and are widely considered unfit for habitation—except that the residents have nowhere else to go. Thus, horrid slums are common and extensive and still, many working poor have no place to live. Orwell spends a great deal of time describing the interior conditions of housing in and around Wigan and other towns. The houses are simple in construction, most often being a stone building of two stories, infrequently with...