He could just as easily have concluded that the song revealed a certain fatalism, a resignation and even capitulation to forces beyond the control of working people. Īfter quoting a few of the song's lines Orwell refers to the era as a time when "people had not yet settled down to a lifetime of unemployment mitigated by endless cups of tea," a turn of phrase which the later writer Larry Portis contests. There was a turbulent feeling in the air. Moreover, they had been at war and were coming home with a soldier's attitude to life, which is fundamentally, in spite of discipline, a lawless attitude. The men who had fought had been lured into the army by gaudy promises, and they were coming home to a world where there were no jobs and not even any houses.
Yet George Orwell highlights the lyrics of "Ain't We Got Fun" as an example of working class unrest:Īll through the war and for a little time afterwards there had been high wages and abundant employment things were now returning to something worse than normal, and naturally the working class resisted.
Diane Holloway and Bob Cheney, authors of American History in Song: Lyrics from 1900 to 1945, concur, and describe the black humor in the couple's relief that their poverty shields them from worrying about damage to their nonexistent Pierce Arrow luxury automobile. Tawa summarizes the refrain "Ain't we got fun" as a "satirical and jaunty rejoinder" toward hard times. Philip Furia, The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: A History of America's Great LyricistsĬritical appraisals vary regarding what view of poverty the song's lyrics take.