In December of 1936, armchair anarchist George Orwell arrives in Barcelona, Spain, where he feels immediately in his element because the Anarchists are in charge; social hierarchy has, to all intents and purposes, been abolished. Even language has changed; there are no "sirs" and "ma'ams" anymore, because there is no language suggesting that one person is of a higher worth or rank than another. The Revolution is continuing apace, and Orwell is happy to be in a place where there is the appearance of equality. Evidence of Russian influence is everywhere, from the graffiti on the walls of the city to the changing of the names of streets and locations to honor Lenin.
Despite his feeling comfortable in his surroundings, Orwell still sees some obvious problems with the anarchist militia, primarily that whilst being given a job for men, they are predominantly boys. Then their is the traditionally Spanish pace of life that includes a daily afternoon siesta and a tendency to wait until tomorrow to do everything.
Early the following year, Orwell and his until arrive behind the fighting at the front line of Zaragoza. The squalor and dirt of the area immediately strikes him, and the rifles they are given are one hundred years old and clearly not suited to successfully firing. The guns used by their opponents are more than capable of firing and a bullet narrowly misses Orwell thanks to his quick reflexes and the fact that he ducks.
Having only imagined participating in an anarchic uprising in an intellectual capacity from his armchair at home, Orwell finds that much of the time, the conflict moves very slowly, and that a war of attrition is in real life very boring. The opposing armies dig into their trenches and although they hurl verbal ammunition at each other, the battle seems to stagnate. The only thing that makes the experience agreeable to Orwell is the obvious equality that exists within the ranks. Militia members obey instructions because they want to and because they see the orders they are given as having a purpose other than just telling them what to do. They see orders as a means to an end.
After three weeks at the front in bitter cold, Orwell and the other English militia men in his unit are sent to Monte Oscuro by the Independent Labour Party, a Marxist offshoot of the traditional British Labour Party. Whilst there, the men hear of the fall of Malaga to the Nationalists, which they realize must have been because of a treasonable action by the Communist group who were supposed to be supporting the Anarchists. In February Orwell's unit is sent fifty miles to Huesca where the militia are trying to take back the city. It is the commercial capital of the province of Aragon and therefore pivotal in the fight for dominance. It is also incredibly and mind-crushingly boring. Orwell notes that the most exciting thing that happens there is the changing of the seasons. There are also lice and rodents; Orwell, who previously had no feeling for rats one way or another, is committed to the hospital with blood poisoning after a rat bite which also causes a lifelong phobia of rats.
The Huesca offensive is actually a diversionary attack designed to draw the majority of Nationalist soldiers away from the main area of the city that the Anarchists were busy taking. Orwell's platoon captures a Nationalist position and also steals arms and ammunition that are much more recent, and inherently more functional, than what they were given. This raid is Orwell's most significant contribution to the fighting.
When Orwell returns to Barcelona three months later, the changes that have taken place seem as though three years have gone by, but at the same time that the clock has been turned back three years as well. Societal class divisions have re-emerged and there are already signs that there are divisions between rich and poor. Orwell is so incensed that he wants to leave his own regiment and join the Anarchists full time. He becomes involved in the street fighting that has broken out all over Barcelona. This disillusions him; although technically he is fighting alongside the working classes, street fighting seems beneath him, and distinctly un-intellectual, nothing to do with any kind of political or social ideology at all. When he finally returns to more organized fighting at the front, his war career comes to an abrupt end when a sniper shoots him in the throat. He is taken to the hospital, where after a long series of examinations he is declared officially unfit to fight, but not in time to avoid becoming a fugitive; his POUM organization has been declared illegal and it is therefore now illegal to be a member. He flees his hotel room to avoid arrest.
When his wife comes to visit with him, they make their escape, fleeing over the Pyrenees border into France, with no problems or altercations.
