ABSTRACT
Arnold Wesker's most immediately popular play, Chips with everything, ostensibly deals with the national conscription which continued to be an everyday feature of postwar British life until 1963. The play starts with the breaking-in of a raw squad of RAF conscripts, first by the corporal, Hill, and then by the commissioned officers. In an introduction to the play, Wesker wrote, 'Chips is not about the troubles of national servicemen in the RAF. It is about the subtle methods employed in this country for debilitating the spirit of rebellion. Wesker is, however, ringing much subtler changes. In presenting a hero who does not 'mind being a snob', he brings many British fears and miseries into sharp focus. The word 'snob' originally meant 'cobbler', then someone with social pretensions, and only finally someone who looks down on.
