George Orwell

1
George Orwell

• born Eric Arthur Blair in India on June 25, 1903

• His father was a civil servant working for the
  British Empire. He monitored the opium trade,
  which England was exporting to China. India was
  under British rule at this time.
• In 1904, his mother moved back to England with
  him and his older sister to enroll them in
  school. Their father stayed in India until 1912.
  This was considered a common thing to do at the
  time.
• He went to private school and then was sent to
  boarding school when he was eight. He started
  writing at this time.
• At thirteen, he earned a scholarship to the
  prestigious prep school Eton. He was an
  indifferent student and did not get a scholarship
  to a university. His father refused to pay for a
  college education nor support his writing.
• He joined the colonial police service and was
  sent to Burma in 1922 until 1927. During this
  period he began to see the result of imperialism
  (ruled by one country over another country) and
  oppression of the people there.

2

• He decided that he would live among the poor and
  make a living as a writer.
• He began to see himself as part of the problem
  and left the police.
• He moved to London where he gained sympathy for
  the poor and working class and criticized the
  English class system.
• He also lived in Paris from 1928-1929, where he
  also lived among the poor.
• He became ill and had to be hospitalized, where
  he saw how terrible to health care was for the
  poor.
• His experiences were written in his first
  published book titled Down and Out in Paris and
  London. He published it under the name George
  Orwell.
• When war broke out in Spain, he fought for the
  socialists against Franco. (1936)
• The communists were fighting in Spain against
  Franco and for a short time he joined them.
  However, he became disillusioned with them
  because of actions Stalin was taking in the
  Soviet Union. He felt they were not trustworthy.
  He did remain a socialist. He wrote Homage to
  Catalonia about his experiences.
• Once war started in Europe, he was back in
  England. He was not accepted into the British
  army because of his bad health. Due to this, he
  began writing for magazines and wrote training
  pamphlets for would-be soldiers.

3

• During this time, he felt that he could not say
  what he wanted. He was disturbed by the wartime
  censorship. This was especially true when he
  started working for the BBC, writing and
  broadcasting British propaganda shows to India.
  He was also disturbed by the rationing during and
  after the war.
• After he left the BBC, he began working on
  Animal Farm. It was a statement against Stalins
  influence on Spain and how it came under the
  control of a dictator living thousands of miles
  away. The Soviet Union was an ally of England
  and the US at this time. People believed the
  myth that the Russian Revolution had glorified
  the common people and placed them in a workers
  paradise. However, Orwell had to escape from
  Spain because the communists were going to charge
  him with treason and execute him and his wife.
• He had trouble publishing Animal Farm because
  anti-Stalin feelings were being censored in
  England. Stalin used his influence to keep it
  from being published. The fourth publisher
  finally agreed and it was a success.
• He moved to Jura, an island off Scotland. It
  was here that he began writing 1984. He finished
  it in 1948. He became seriously ill again and
  was in and out of hospitals with tuberculosis.
• He died in 1950 at the age of 47.

4
The Russian Revolution

• To understand Animal Farm, you should know
  something about the Russian Revolution.
• It was a revolution against economic oppression
  (people being crushed by the laws and rulers).
• Russia was ruled by the Czars (king). In 1917,
  it was Czar Nicholas II.
• The people of Russia were poor, starving, cold
  and treated cruelly.
• They were working under a feudal system. The
  Czar and the nobility were wealthy and the rest
  of the people were workers who lived in the worst
  living conditions and had no share in the land
  that they worked. They were controlled by being
  kept poor and ignorant.
• Revolutionaries overthrew the Czar.
• Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin believed in the
  teachings of Karl Marx.

5
The Russian Revolution

• They believed that the working class should rise
  against the ruling class, take over, and
  everything would be shared equally. All property
  would be owned by the community as a whole and
  all people enjoy equal social and economic status
  (no classes).
• Lenin and the Bolsheviks took over the
  government.
• Lenin ruled with Trotsky as his second in
  command. Trotsky was a very good speaker and
  writer.
• After Lenin became ill, Stalin took control of
  the government. He began to eliminate anyone who
  spoke against him. He purged intelligent people
  who disagreed with him.
• Trotsky opposed Stalins views of how to rule.
  When Lenin died, Stalin ruled completely. He
  started the brutal elimination of all who opposed
  him. He became a dictator.
• Trotsky was eventually kicked out of Russia. He
  wrote many books, one which criticized Stalins
  rule in Russia, saying he had betrayed the
  original reason for the revolution. This
  convinced Stalin that exiling him was not enough.
  He ordered that Trotsky be killed. Trotsky was
  assassinated in 1940 by an agent of the Soviet
  secret police.

6
Utopian and Dystopian Literature

• In 1516 Sir Thomas More wrote a book Utopia. It
  was a fiction that created the perfect society.
  It was a statement of how society could be in its
  idealized state and a criticism of the way life
  was lived at that time.
• Taken from two Greek words Eu-topos - a
  perfect place and Ou-topos no place
• It was thought that technology and human
  ingenuity could build a better world. The onset
  of industrialization brought the belief that man
  could become better, conquer disease, poverty,
  aging, war, etc.

Utopian Society
7
Utopian and Dystopian Literature

• Dystopia is the opposite of Utopia. It is what
  society could be in the negative form.
• In the dystopian society, life is miserable.
  People are oppressed and there is poverty,
  violence, disease, pollution and government
  control.
• Instead of an ideal society, it is created to
  criticize contemporary problems. Writers began
  to predict dire consequences of current trends in
  society.
• People realized that industrialization did not
  bring the better world they thought it would.
  Reaction to World War I and II, genocides,
  government collapses and overthrows, and the use
  of technology for destructive purposes (atom
  bomb) had left people feeling discouraged and
  powerless.

Dystopian Society
8
Characteristics of a Dystopian Society

• Propaganda is used to control the citizens
• Freedom, independent thought and information are
  restricted
• The leader is worshipped by citizens he/she is
  God-like
• Citizens are under (or think they are under)
  constant watch
• Citizens fear the outside world
• Citizens live in a de-humanized state (robotic-
  no humanity)
• Citizens eventually conform to expectations

9
Allegory

• Animal Farm is allegorical literature.
• The definition of allegory is the figurative
  (symbolic) treatment of one subject under the
  guise (appearance) of another.
• The main purpose of an allegory is to tell a
  story that has characters, a setting, as well as
  other types of symbols, that have both literal
  and figurative meanings.
• It can be written in the form of fables,
  parables, poems, as well as other forms of
  literature.
• Animal Farm has been described as an animal
  fable.
• A fable is defined as a short story that
  features animals, plants, or other inanimate
  objects that are given human qualities and that
  illustrate a moral lesson.

10
Satire

• a literary work holding up human vices (bad
  habits) and follies (thoughtless behavior) to
  ridicule or scorn (to make fun of in a
  disrespectful way)
• Trenchant (forceful and cutting) wit, irony, or
  sarcasm used to expose and discredit (to make
  appear wrong) vice or folly