George Orwell

1. George Orwell By Brian Bender

2. Background • Born as Eric Arthur Blair in India in June, 1903. • Moved to Oxfordshire, England in 1905 • First work published: Awake! Young Men of England, 1914 • Receives scholarship to Eton • Never receives a diploma and moves to India to work for the Indian Imperial Police • Returns to England, quits police, starts working odd jobs, and starts writing

3. Background • Adopts pen name of George Orwell: combination of monarch and river • 1934 – Burmese Days, first novel • Marries Eileen Maud O'Shaughnessy in 1936 and moves to Hertsfordshire • 1937 – Fights in Spanish Civil War against General Francisco Franco’s fascists • As England joins WWII, Orwell is turned down for service due to poor health; instead he writes • Worked for BBC writing wartime propaganda

4. Background • Works as an editor for The Tribune, a socialist newspaper • Has a son, Richard Blair, and his house is destroyed by a bomb • Wife dies during a hysterectomy and he has to raise his son with the help of his sister • Begins writing his best known works

5. Animal Farm • Old Major has a vision, animals decide to take over farm • Animals prosper at first, then pigs become more controlling • Snowball and Napoleon become rivals and divide animals • Napoleon takes control, kills animals supposedly involved in conspiracy • Pigs act more and more like humans and eventually become indistinguishable from them • Allegory for Russian Revolution • Napoleon – ruthless leader; Joseph Stalin • Snowball – other ruling pig, more intelligent and eloquent; Leon Trotsky • Boxer – trusting, hard-working, loyal horse • Squealer – pig who spreads Napoleon’s propaganda • Old Major – old pig that has vision; Marx and Lenin • Mr. Jones – former owner of farm and ruler of the Animals; Nicolas II

6. 1984 • Takes place in dystopian society where everything is monitored by Big Brother • Winston Smith becomes intrigued with co-worker, O’Brien, a suspected Brotherhood member • Has a covert affair with Julia • O’Brien indoctrinates them into the Brotherhood, but betrays them • Smith tortured in Room 101, gives up Julia, and brainwashed to love Big Brother • Winston Smith – a worker for the Party, but hates the totalitarian rule and becomes intrigued with revolutionaries • Julia – worker for the Ministry of Truth and Winston’s lover • O’Brien – powerful member of the Inner Party whom Winston believes to be a member of the Brotherhood • Big Brother – supposed all-seeing ruler of Oceania • Emmanuel Goldstein – leader of the Brotherhood

7. Terms from 1984 • Big Brother – highly observational and controlling, totalitarian government • Doublethink – thinking and accepting two contradictory things at the same time, one is the truth, the other is what the government wants people to believe is the truth • Doublespeak – spoken doublethoughts, in the form of euphemisms or intentional ambiguity to disguise meaning • Newspeak – language of the party used to control thoughts of population • Thought Police – government force used to catch and punish those committing thoughtcrimes

8. Down and Out in Paris and London • Orwell’s first full-length work • Described life of poor in both Paris and London • Heavily influenced by Orwell’s time amongst the poor after quitting the Imperial Police in Burma

9. Homage to Catalonia • Chronicle’s Orwell’s time in the Spanish Civil War • Heavily commented on the political issues that would so greatly influence his later works.

10. Burmese Days • Orwell’s first fiction work • Greatly influenced by his time in India working for the Imperial Police • Focused on the waning days of British imperialism after WWI

11. Political Views • Socialist • No totalitarianism • No permanent ruling caste • Communist and fascist leaders only greedy for power

12. Impact • Greater suspicion of government control • More criticism of communism from literature, not just political scientists • 1984 used as a model of what should be avoided

13. The End