For many situations, there is both a perceived version of the situation and an actual version of the situation. Usually these two versions vary in some direction. Some people will be able to honestly understand what happened, but the majority are unable to see the truth of a situation. Rather, they see an inaccurate representation of the defined situation. Such, such were the joys of George Orwell, Juliet Schor's The Overspent American and Loren Eiseley's The Firmament of Time show how the truth of a situation is hidden by a facade. In George Orwell's Such Were the Joys, Crossgates School is seen as a prestigious private school, when in reality its true operations operate as a deceptive and disappointing institution. Orwell first explained how the institution's standard of living was of lower quality than that of the lower classes. The narrator, from a poor family, recounted how he "had moved up the social ladder by attending [Crossgates], and yet the level of comfort was in every way far below that of my own house, or even that of that he would have been in my own house. a prosperous working-class home” (Orwell 434). Crossgates was seen as a lavish place to live, where schoolchildren would benefit from first-rate accommodation. Instead, the Crossgates boarding situation lacked any hospitality and had a lower standard of living than would constitute a lower class. The ascetics of Crossgates were equally despicable. The institute gave off a pungent odor and allowed children to live in a state of malnutrition. Orwell recalled that "it was not easy for me to think of my school years without seeming to breathe a whiff of something cold and foul-smelling" (Orwell 436), as well as "oft-repeated to Cr. ..... middle of paper ......e two. Often, facades triumph over the truth. However, if we want society to progress, we must recognize that living a life of illusions will not get us there. We must break down the facades to discover the truth. In the words of leading American academic Edward Levi, “the concept of reason itself appears to be an artificial attempt to separate intellectual powers from the frustrations, emotions, and accidents that cause events; the concept of reason is seen as a facade to prevent change. »Works CitedEiseley, Loren C. The Firmament of Time. Lincoln: University of Nebraska, 1999. Print. Orwell, George and Richard Halworth Rovere. The Orwell Reader: fiction, essays and reports. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, 1984. Print. Schor, Juliet B. The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need. New York: HarperPerennial, 1999. Print.