Orwell’s experience in Spain begins with an immediate sense of closeness to another man. Funder suggests that the intimacy Orwell feels with the stranger is sexual in nature.

Historically, the war in Spain was triggered by the rise of fascism across Europe—notably headed by Hitler in Germany and by Mussolini in Italy. The actions of these two leaders inspired General Franco to attempt to take full control of Spain. A group of left-leaning revolutionaries resisted him, but the resistance looked grim, and many idealists across the world (including artists and writers like Orwell) came to join a grassroots movement to resist fascism. Many of the groups supporting the revolution were socialist or communist, and between those groups were conflicts rooted in the Russian schism between Lenin and Trotsky, which inspires Orwell’s Animal Farm.

When Orwell and his compatriots are sent to the front at Huesca under commander Georges Kopp, he is disgusted at the boredom and general filth of the trench. At one point, Orwell wakes to see a rat chewing at his boot. He fires on the rat, which brings down an attack from the fascist enemy—destroying the transportation and the canteen. In February, they begin to see serious conflict.