Who was george orwell?
George Orwell was born Eric Authur Blair in 1903. He was the son of a civil servant stationed in India and moved back to England in 1904. Orwell's father stayed back behind in India and as a result he found it hard to build a relationship.
As was typical for his time, Orwell was sent to boarding school at the age of 8 and quickly noticed the inequalities in England's class system. As his parents could not afford the full fees, Orwell was on a partial scholarship and he noticed that the school's administration treated the richer pupils more favorably than the poorer ones. Orwell was a loner in school; however, what he lacked in friends he more than made up in academics. Orwell attended Wellington College and Eton College on scholarships.
After graduation from secondary school, Orwell joined the India Imperial Police Force and was stationed in Burma (Myanmar) for five years. He left the police force, set on making his way as a writer.
Orwell struggled to get his writing career started. His first major work, Down and Out In Paris and London focused on the lives of the working poor in urban areas and provided a brutally honest evaluation of the class system. His next book, Burmese Days examined British colonialism in Burma and it would be this book that would set the political overtone of his later novels.
In 1937, Orwell was indicted on treason charges in Spain, where we had fought as part of a group in the Spanish Civil War. However, these charges were brought after he and his wife had left the country.
Orwell is best known for two novels; Animal Farm and 1984, both works dealing with totalitarian regimes. He died in 1950 after struggling with tuberculosis for over a decade.
As was typical for his time, Orwell was sent to boarding school at the age of 8 and quickly noticed the inequalities in England's class system. As his parents could not afford the full fees, Orwell was on a partial scholarship and he noticed that the school's administration treated the richer pupils more favorably than the poorer ones. Orwell was a loner in school; however, what he lacked in friends he more than made up in academics. Orwell attended Wellington College and Eton College on scholarships.
After graduation from secondary school, Orwell joined the India Imperial Police Force and was stationed in Burma (Myanmar) for five years. He left the police force, set on making his way as a writer.
Orwell struggled to get his writing career started. His first major work, Down and Out In Paris and London focused on the lives of the working poor in urban areas and provided a brutally honest evaluation of the class system. His next book, Burmese Days examined British colonialism in Burma and it would be this book that would set the political overtone of his later novels.
In 1937, Orwell was indicted on treason charges in Spain, where we had fought as part of a group in the Spanish Civil War. However, these charges were brought after he and his wife had left the country.
Orwell is best known for two novels; Animal Farm and 1984, both works dealing with totalitarian regimes. He died in 1950 after struggling with tuberculosis for over a decade.
Linkage back to animal farm
While Orwell was a life long proponent of socialist ideals (as evidenced by his fighting in the Spanish Civil War), he also recognized that the state of affairs in the Soviet Union was a betrayal of socialism. Much like Trotsky, who later denounced Stalin's totalitarian regime in his later works, Orwell chose to criticize the Soviet Union in a satirical way.
It has been suggested that Orwell inserted part of himself into the character of Benjamin the donkey. Throughout the entire novel, Benjamin is more of a bystander than a participant. It is only until Boxer's injury and subsequent murder that Benjamin bothers to take action. Benjamin's tendency to only open his mouth 'to make some cynical remark' (Chapter 1) aligns him closely with Orwell. However, while Benjamin makes cryptic remarks and is detached from everything, one has to wonder whether his morose state of mind in the latter part of the novel is partially due to his early apathy and inaction. One key difference between Orwell and Benjamin is that unlike Benjamin, Orwell actually spoke out against the injustice he saw (as evidenced by the writing of Animal Farm) instead of watching events fold out in a fatalistic manner.
It has been suggested that Orwell inserted part of himself into the character of Benjamin the donkey. Throughout the entire novel, Benjamin is more of a bystander than a participant. It is only until Boxer's injury and subsequent murder that Benjamin bothers to take action. Benjamin's tendency to only open his mouth 'to make some cynical remark' (Chapter 1) aligns him closely with Orwell. However, while Benjamin makes cryptic remarks and is detached from everything, one has to wonder whether his morose state of mind in the latter part of the novel is partially due to his early apathy and inaction. One key difference between Orwell and Benjamin is that unlike Benjamin, Orwell actually spoke out against the injustice he saw (as evidenced by the writing of Animal Farm) instead of watching events fold out in a fatalistic manner.