1 / 13

George Orwell

George Orwell. By Brian Bender. 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

cachet
Télécharger la présentation

George Orwell

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  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

More Related