Universidad Catlica Andrs Bello

Facultad de Humanidades y Educacin

Escuela de Letras
Ctedra: Ingls IV
Profesora: Marbia Santos

MARRAKECH
George Orwell Questions
Maribel Lucrecia Toro Rojas
Cuarto Ao de Letras

1.- Whats the purpose of the writer?

The purpose of the writer is to present descriptive way a number of issues of
social and political character of those who wants attention in Marrakech. Orwell used
expository writing because he needs inform and explain about situation in Marrakech at
1939. Orwell makes use of different resources in order to convincingly explain the facts,
which are taken from real and verifiable facts.
Marrakech was writing in 1939, in the shadow of oncoming World War II. Orwell
uses word choice, vivid imagery, rhetorical questions and tone to expose the evils of
colonialism, highlight the inhumane treatment of women in the Arab world and explore the
deep Anti-Semitic feeling in Morocco.
When you go through the Jewish quarters you gather some idea of what
the medieval ghettoes were probably like. Under their Moorish rulers the
Jews were only allowed to own land in certain restricted areas, and after
centuries of this kind of treatment they have ceased to bother about
overcrowding.
As a matter of fact there are thirteen thousand of them, all living in the
space of a few acres. A good job Hitler isn't here. Perhaps he is on his
way, however. You hear the usual dark rumours about the Jews, not only
from the Arabs but from the poorer Europeans.

Marrakech essay sends important and powerful messages to the reader, and its
main themes still appeal to the people of the modern world: that poverty, intolerance, racial

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discrimination and subjugation of a nation by force have severe consequences for the lives
of ordinary people.
When a family is travelling it is quite usual to see a father
and a grown-up son riding ahead on donkeys, and an old
woman following on foot, carrying the baggage.
2.- Evaluate the clever choice of words, verbs, scenes and tenses.

The most common technique used by Orwell to create a memorable style

throughout Marrakech is word choice.
The essay begins with a vivid image of the levels of poverty and death present in
Marrakech. In the opening paragraph, Orwell establishes how unclean and distasteful the
conditions are in Marrakech. The flies, drawn to the decay, follow a dead body being taken
through the streets, yet return, as the restaurant is unsanitary enough to provide them with
the possibility of food. There is an implied sense of pity for those people forced to live in
such conditions.

As the corpse went past the flies left the restaurant table in a cloud and
rushed after it, but they came back a few minutes later.

The little crowd of mourners-all men and boys, no womenthreaded their

way across the market-place between the piles of pomegranates and the
taxis and the camels, wailing a short chant over and over again. What
really appeals to the flies is that the corpses here are never put into
coffins, they are merely wrapped in a piece of rag and carried on a rough
wooden bier on the shoulders of four friends.

The structure of the opening paragraph is vivid as the short and striking opening
heightens dramatic impact. The vivid image of the cloud of flies emphasises their sheer
volume, almost as if they appear as a mass, and shows how they move.
This powerful description clearly expresses the levels of poverty in Marrakech. Not
only is a dead body carried openly through the streets, but the flies, feasting on decay, are

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more satisfied at the filthy restaurant. This vivid description creates a rather cold and
detached tone emphasising how this is the norm, therefore intensifying the readers sense
of disgust at the poverty on this story.
Orwell uses word choice and anecdote to convey the poverty of the Jewish people
throughout Morroco. He tells us of a frenzied rush of Jews... all clamouring for a cigarette.
The word choice of clamouring and frenzied is highly effective as it shows how desperate
they truly.
Orwell is very effective in choice words especially when you want to show contempt
of Europeans towards Moroccans What does Morocco mean to a Frenchman? An orangegrove or a job in government service. Or to an Englishman? Camels, castles, palm-trees,
Foreign Legionnaires, brass trays and bandits.
A example about uses the clever choice of scenes is when described how jews
dress and the places where they work.
In the bazaar huge families of Jews, all dressed in the long black robe and
little black skull-cap, are working in dark fly-infested booths that look like
caves

3.- Analyze the effect of the literary devices used:

In the opening paragraph Orwell cleverly uses the stylistic technique of imagery to
establish the unhygienic living conditions of Marrakech, one of the consequences of
colonialism.
As the corpse went past the flies left the restaurant table in a cloud and rushed
after it but they came back a few minutes later. Orwell uses a metaphor to compare the
flies to a cloud, highlighting the sheer volume of them. They follow the decaying dead
body, yet they return to the restaurant as it is just as unsanitary as the dead body and
provides them with the opportunity of food.
What really appeals to the flies is that the corpses here are never put into
coffins, they are merely wrapped in a piece of rag and carried on a rough
wooden bier on the shoulders of four friends.

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Throughout Marrakech Orwell uses rhetorical questions as a stylistic technique.
Orwell introduces the reader to the typical view of a stereotypical European during the
French colonialism of Marrakech.

For example: Are they really the same flesh as

yourself? Do they really have names? Or are they merely a kind of undifferentiated brown
stuff, about as individual as bees or coral insects?
Orwell cleverly uses the rhetorical question to convey to the reader the idiocy of
those who think these questions, in other words the French Colonialists who Orwell
believes regard themselves as superior to the native Morrocans and that the natives of
Morroco are not human beings.
When you walk through a town like thistwo hundred thousand
inhabitants, of whom at least twenty thousand own literally nothing except
the rags they stand up inwhen you see how the people live, and still
more how easily they die, it is always difficult to believe that you are
walking among human beings.

Orwells use of simile, when describe the place where working the Jews: are
working in dark fly-infested booths that look like caves, comparing their places of work to
caves vividly depicts how dark, bleak and primitive the conditions really are. It makes you
think of the dark ages and clearly highlights the discrimination shown towards the Jews in
Marrakech. It also reveals the extent of the poverty in the city that proper working
conditions are simply unavailable.

Orwell then goes on to vividly describe another marginalised section of society its
women. Orwell presents a vivid physical description of the women of Marrakech, showing
us the toll that their mistreatment has taken on their bodies. Orwell then describes the
menial tasks they are expected to perform, despite their lack of health and strength. He
writes about a meeting with a group of women collecting wood.
Every afternoon a file of very old women passes down the road outside
my house, each carrying a load of firewood. All of them are mummified
with age and the sun, and all of them are tiny
When a family is travelling it is quite usual to see a father and a grown-up
son riding ahead on donkeys, and an old woman following on foot,
carrying the baggage.

When Orwell said: Then for the first time I noticed they poor old earth-coloured
bodies, bodies reduced to bones and leathery skin, bent double under the crushing weight,
he exploits particularly vivid and emotive language here in phrases such as, poor old,
reduced to bones, bent double, and crushing weight. This creates pity and sympathy for
the women. Orwell

plaintive, moving and emotive tone reveals his compassion and

sympathetic stance.
It is not only the Jews and the women who are mistreated, and Orwell uses vivid
language to describe the sickening mistreatment of animals. Orwell reflects on the
eventual fate of the animals in Marrakech, stating how cold and unfeeling the masters are
towards the disposal of their animals dead bodies. Vivid and emotive language is used to
simultaneously create pity for the animals, and contempt for their owners; the tone is bitter
and accusatory, and the stance critical and confrontational.
I noticed the overloading of the donkeys and was infuriated by it. There is
no question that the donkeys are damnably treated. The Moroccan
donkey is hardly bigger than a St Bernard dog, it carries a load which in
the British army would be considered too much for a fifteen-hands mule,
and very often its pack-saddle is not taken off its back for weeks together.
But what is peculiarly pitiful is that it is the most willing creature on earth, it
follows its master like a dog and does not need either bridle or halter. After
a dozen years of devoted work it suddenly drops dead, whereupon its
master tips it into the ditch and the village dogs have torn its guts out
before it is cold

Orwell used ironic tone. The ironic is found when referring for example to the Jews
As a matter of fact there are thirteen thousand of them, all living in the space of a few
acres. A good job Hitler isn't here. Other example about that is All people who work with
their hands are partly invisible, and the more important the work they do, the less visible
they are.
Other resources used Orwell in this essay is paradox, in this case is representative
about contradiction imaginary about peace and war.

And really it was almost like watching a flock of cattle to see the long
column, a mile or two miles of armed men, flowing peacefully up the road,

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while the great white birds drifted over them in the opposite direction,
glittering like scraps of paper.

In this essay found repetitions, for example: Even a blind man somewhere at the
back of one of the booths heard a rumour of cigarettes and came crawling out,; You hear
the usual dark rumours about the Jews. Other example: I have noticed this again and

again

4.- Analyze the impact of the narrative structure that closes the story.

The structure of the opening paragraph is vivid as the short and striking opening
heightens dramatic impact. The vivid image of the cloud of flies emphasises their sheer
volume, almost as if they appear as a mass, and shows how they move.
This powerful description clearly expresses the levels of poverty in Marrakech. Not
only is a dead body carried openly through the streets, but the flies, feasting on decay, are
more satisfied at the filthy restaurant. This vivid description creates a rather cold and
detached tone emphasising how this is the norm, therefore intensifying the readers sense
of disgust at the poverty on this story.

In the other point of view George Orwells' non-fiction essay Marrakech highlights
an extremely important social issue: the evils of Colonialism.
He successfully conveys through; word choice, vivid imagery, rhetorical questions
and tone that colonialism has a disastrous knock on effect on the lives of ordinary people.
Although this essay was written a number of years ago, however it seems that he
was describing any modern society where even these differences between humans
persist. Marrakech should serve as a kind of life lesson, to promote the necessary
changes in society and especially for those who still live in the form of colonies.

We as human beings need to realise that no matter what faith, skin colour or
income that we are all equals in this world there are no superior beings a there are no
lower beings. We are the human race, one amazing race at that, if and only if, we can get
past these nonsensical beliefs of superiority then the world would be a much brighter
and happier place.