Exploration of George Orwell’s Keep the Aspidistra Flying from Marxist Perspective

Authors

  • Yasin Danish Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology Author https://orcid.org/0009-0004-1329-3428
  • Maria City university of Science and Information Technology Author
  • Maheen Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: institute of Applied Sciences and Technology Author https://orcid.org/0009-0005-7983-4167
  • Eman Pak-Austria Fachhochschule: institute of Applied Sciences and Technology Author

Keywords:

London, Aspidistra, Marxism, Bourgeois, Proletariat, Gordon, Comstock, Orwell.

Abstract

The paper examines the exploration the social issues, the depictions of classes, character development in the novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying examines by George Orwell. The paper tells how money is used as a force of destruction and how it manipulates the humans while considering the economic conditions of 1930s. The paper also tells the reader how Gordon Comstock rejected the materialistic approach and continued achieving his goal of becoming a poet through struggle between the social requirements and literary authenticity. The paper examines how Rosemary and Ravelston influence Gordon's view of social class and societal norms. The research study shows how Orwell criticizes capitalism and commercialism and social expectations because these systems restrict people from exercising their right to practice individualism. The research study demonstrates how the novel remains important today because it warns readers about the dangers of losing their personal principles to gain material wealth and social acceptance.

References

Althusser, L. (1971). Ideology and ideological state apparatuses (Notes towards an investigation). In L. Althusser, Lenin and philosophy and other essays (B. Brewster, Trans., pp. 127–186). Monthly Review Press.

Bantebya-Kyomuhendo, G. (2015). Oral tradition and literary portrayals of poverty. In Poverty and shame: Global experiences (pp. 21–34).

Basheer, L. D. (2022). The portrayal of poverty in George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara.

Bowen, G. A. (2009). Document analysis as a qualitative research method. Qualitative Research Journal, 9(2), 27–40. https://doi.org/10.3316/QRJ0902027

Brunsdale, M. (2000). Student companion to George Orwell. ABC-CLIO.

Creswell, J. W., & Creswell, J. D. (2018). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). SAGE.

Davies, L. L. (2022). Representing the poor. Twentieth Century Literature, 68(1), 1–24.

Eagleton, T. (2011). Why Marx was right. Yale University Press.

Gruen, T. W., Osmonbekov, T., & Czaplewski, A. J. (2020). Money as a symbolic resource. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(4), 671–688. https://doi.org/xxxx

Hammond, J. (1982). A George Orwell companion.

Harvey, D. L., & Reed, M. H. (1996). The culture of poverty. Sociological Perspectives, 39(4), 465–495.

Hudis, P., et al. (2019). The Oxford handbook of Karl Marx.

Jameson, F. (1981). The political unconscious. Cornell University Press.

Marx, K. (1990). Capital: Volume 1. Penguin. (Original work published 1867)

Marx, K., & Engels, F. (2002). The communist manifesto. Penguin. (Original work published 1848)

Morrell, S. (2025). Orwell and modernism. In N. Waddell (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of George Orwell (pp. 229–246). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198860693.013.17

Morgan, E. A. (2022). Existential Orwell: Capitalism, religion, and philosophy. Criterion: A Journal of Literary Criticism, 14(2).

Orwell, G. (2021). Keep the aspidistra flying. Oxford University Press. (Original work published 1936)

Periyan, N. (2025). Orwell the literary critic. In N. Waddell (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of George Orwell (pp. 100–113). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198860693.013.8

Tavares, D. R., & Puglia, D. (2022). Resigned dissatisfaction: Comments about Keep the Aspidistra Flying by George Orwell. Intelligere. https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2447-9020.intelligere.2022.203736

Törzsök, R. (2026). An enduring, uncomfortable mirror: Keep the Aspidistra Flying at ninety. Orwell Society.

Ullén, M. (2026). Radical dystopia: The comic modernism of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orbis Litterarum. https://doi.org/10.1111/oli.70044

Waddell, N. (Ed.). (2025). The Oxford handbook of George Orwell. Oxford University Press.

Williams, R. (1977). Marxism and literature. Oxford University Press.

Wright, E. O. (1994). Interrogating inequality. Verso.

Žižek, S. (1989). The sublime object of ideology. Verso.

Downloads

Published

2026-07-01

Similar Articles

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.