There is a skill that all literary critics ought to possess - a skill of seeing the bigger picture. In his essay Inside the Whale, which functions as a review of Henry Miller's The Tropic of Cancer, George Orwell demonstrates his mastery of

        In the first part Orwell focuses on a curiosity of Miller's book.  He tries to uncover whether a publication that refuses to take a political stand in a world moving rapidly towards World War II, can actually be a “good” book. After comparing it with several other authors with similar style (e.g. Whitman, Joyce), Orwell finds its main quality in the way it focuses on an ordinary human being.  He states: “... the whole atmosphere is deeply familiar, because you have all the while the feeling that these things are happening to you.” By refusing to take part in any political struggle and by “accepting” the reality,  Miller is able to appeal to an “ordinary man”. Orwell however adds: “It will be seen that this is something (…) out of fashion,”  and goes on with closer historical analysis in the second part to prove his point.

        This analysis takes the reader from Alfred Houseman's collection of rural poems A Shropshire Lad to the writers of 1920s. People such as James Joyce or Ezra Pound demonstrate a similar lack of interest in politics, all reveling in a “tragic sense of life”. They are in a sharp contrast to the authors of 1930s (W.H. Auden, Stephen Spender...), when “the keynote of the new writers is 'serious purpose'.”  Tropic of Cancer was out of fashion, because it ignored  tendency to include a clear political statement. “Good novels are not written by orthodoxy-sniffers (...). Good novels are written by people who are not frightened.” Thus Orwell reveals that Tropic of Cancer may very well be far better than most of the novels of 1930s.

        The last part of the essay focuses on Miller himself and in the image of his personality and  style lies the final conclusion. Orwell depicts him as an author with  a “completely passive viewpoint”, who's “fiddling while Rome is burning.” The metaphor of Jonah finally comes along, yet Orwell goes even further. He depicts Miller as “a willing Jonah”, one that accepts the protection of whale's belly with comfort. He simply does not care, because his focus is not a “universal truth” but “emotional sincerity”. Orwell repeatedly brings up the idea of “remaining human” in a world gone mad. That is the broader statement and the main quality of Miller's work – one that ensures that people will come back to his novels even when they “fall out of fashion”.

Works Cited:

Orwell, George. "Inside The Whale." Inside the Whale and Other Essays. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1962. Feb. 2011. Web. 07 Mar. 2012. <http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboard/shop/orwellg/index.htm>.