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31st Mar '13 3:06:21 PM Xtifr

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''Homage to Catalonia'' is Creator/GeorgeOrwell's account of his experiences in the SpanishCivilWar. He describes fighting as a militiaman on the side of the Republicans, as well as the gradual erosion of the Anarchist revolution in Catalonia and the [[DividedWeFall power struggle between various factions on the Republican side]]. It may well be the most famous book about the Spanish Civil War, and is widely praised for its BrutalHonesty.

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!!Homage to Catalonia provides examples of:

* AuthorTract: Orwell loved this trope; this book is no exception.
* ChildSoldiers: The party militias included many underage boys. Orwell notes that they were quite useless as soldiers, since they couldn't stand the sleep deprivation that was inevitable in trench warfare.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: The Communist high command.
* CommieLand: Catalonia, although its organization was more along anarchist lines.
* EagleSquadron: The many international volunteers, including Orwell himself, who came to Spain to fight for TheRepublic.
* EverybodySmokes: Shortage of cigarettes is often brought up as a major hardship of war. Orwell even refers to it as a 'tobacco famine'.
* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Orwell's comrades weren't exactly big on UsefulNotes/GunSafety - [[TooDumbToLive even after seeing this trope in effect]].
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Everyone in Spain, according to Orwell. 'In this war, everyone always did miss everyone else, when it was humanly possible.' It saved his life on several occasions.
* LanguageEqualsThought: The leftists refused to use ceremonial forms of address, preferring to simply call each other "thou" or "comrade".
** To clarify: In Spanish-as-spoken-in-Spain, there are two forms of the second person: the formal "usted" and the more casual "tú", and the usage of one or the other also affects how verbs are declined and other pronouns are used. The Catalonian commmunes favored the usage of the latter.
* OrwellianEditor: The [[BlatantLies horrible distortions of the truth]] which Orwell witnessed in Spain are the TropeMaker - they inspired the constant rewriting of the past in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', which in turn [[TropeNamer named this trope]].
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: The various party militias on the Republican side. Orwell describes the POUM militia, in which he served, as a particularly {{egregious}} example of this trope - an untrained, scruffy-looking band, partly composed of teenage boys whose enthusiasm was decidedly greater than their common sense.
* RedScare: Inverted - various "Red" factions accused each other of ''not'' being Red enough. Communist propaganda even accused the POUM of plotting with Franco, a "Brown Scare" if you will.
* TheRepublic: ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* TheRevolutionWillNotBeVilified: Propaganda was common on all sides, something Orwell is careful to note.
* WarIsHell: Played with. The chapters about the trench warfare on the Aragon front don't fit this trope, but not WarIsGlorious, either; rather, Orwell describes it as boring and stale. He repeatedly emphasises that there was hardly any action, and that everyone was more concerned about food and firewood than about the enemy.
* WasItAllALie: After the betrayal by the Stalinists.
* WeAreStrugglingTogether: Communists and Anarchists.
* WideEyedIdealist: The Republicans, especially the international volunteers. Orwell himself averts this trope, ''hard''.
* WitchHunt: What the [[TheManBehindTheMan Soviet-backed]] Communists unleashed against the POUM.

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23rd Dec '12 7:41:46 AM MidnightRambler

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2nd Jul '12 10:50:32 AM Poopsi

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24th Jun '12 8:12:23 AM FELH2

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