Speech is important in all of Orwell's fiction; nowhere more so than in "Down and Out." Discuss.

Another example of Orwell’s use of cues is when he was talking to a screever. In the screever’s speech Orwell uses cues such as, “a bob or two.” These cues get the effect that the man is talking in a London accent but without marking the text. Orwell thought that marking all the text was bad because it makes it more difficult for the reader and they may get bored and lose interest. Orwell would have had no way to transcript exactly what all the characters say in this book so this use of cues and marked speech helps to give it a real affect as if he did manage to transcript what the characters said without the unfluencies. By editing out the unfluencies it takes out the hesitations, repetitions and pauses that would bore the reader.

When Orwell is in Paris he uses French words as cues in the speech to give the effect that the people are speaking in French accents. For example, when he is trying to get a job and the employer speaks to him, “Will you, my dear monsieur,” again cues like this give the effect that the man is speaking with a French accent without marking the whole text. Using cues like Orwell does in this scene makes it seem realistic without boring the reader.

In “Down and Out,” Orwell’s own voice is the most important. Apart from his voice being the narrative and frame working voice, he changes so that he is documenting facts and making a commentary. The way he changes from different styles of narrative voice is important because it is unnoticeable but it helps him go from documenting straight into framing speech without highlighting the change of style, letting the language flow but still emphasize the differences in the characters voices. All Orwell’s different narrative voices help to give a realistic affect and help highlight the differences.

When Orwell is using speech in his novel, he uses dialect to help highlight the differences in voice. Using dialect helps give the effect of an accent like the cues but instead using the local rules of grammar. He also uses socialect and idiolect to give the voices identity to their character. Using these again helps to create a more realistic effect.