Bucu, Lorelei Joselle H.

GREATWK C35

George Orwell: The Man Behind 1984

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George Orwell is an English author and journalist who
achieved prominence in the late 1940s. His works are denoted by keen intelligence and wit, a profound
awareness of social injustice, an intense, revolutionary opposition to totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in
language and a belief in democratic socialism1. Familiarity with the novels, documentaries, essays, and criticism
he wrote during the 1930s and later established him as one of the most important and influential voices of the
century2. He was born on June 25, 1903 in Motihari, an Indian village which lies near the border of Nepal. He
belongs into a “lower-upper middle class” family as he wryly puts it in The Road to Wigan Pier. He was the son of
Ida Mabel née Limouzin and Richard Walmesley Blair, who worked as a sub-deputy opium agent for the Indian Civil Service under the
British Raj. Eric had two sisters namely Marjorie and Avril. The Blairs led a relatively privileged and fairly pleasant life, helping to
administer the Empire3.

After an education at Eton College in England, Orwell joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, an experience that later found
expression in the novel Burmese Days (1934). Then, he returned to Europe to earn his living penning novels and essays. Orwell's two
best-known books reflect his lifelong distrust of autocratic government, whether of the left or right: Animal Farm (1945), a modern
beast-fable attacking Stalinism, and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), a dystopian novel setting forth his fears of an intrusively
bureaucratized state of the future2. The pair of novels brought him his first fame and almost his only remuneration as a writer. Orwell
was also best known for his journalism, both in the British press and in books of reportage such as Homage to Catalonia, Down and
Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier. Lastly, he is known for his insights about the political implications of the use of
language through his essays particularly "Politics and the English Language" 4. He adopted his pen name in 1933. He chose a pen
name that stressed his deep, lifelong affection for the English tradition and countryside: George is the patron saint of England (and
George V was monarch at the time), while the River Orwell in Suffolk was one of his most beloved English sites 4. Moreover, he
preferred his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, to be published pseudonymously because he will have no reputation that is
lost by doing this and if the book has any kind of success he can always use this pseudonym again3.

Between 1936 and 1945, Orwell was married to Eileen O'Shaughnessy, with whom he adopted a son, Richard Horatio Blair. His
wife died in 1945 during an operation. Late in 1945, he went to the island of Jura off the Scottish coast, and settled there as he wrote
1984. The island’s climate was unsuitable for someone suffering from tuberculosis and the novel reflects the bleakness of human
suffering, the indignity of pain. Indeed, he said that the book wouldn't have been so gloomy had he not been so ill. In the autumn of
1949, shortly before his death, he married Sonia Brownell. He died in January 21, 19503.

1984: One of Orwell’s Greatest Works

1984, which was published on June 8, 1949, was originally titled “Last Man in Europe”. It was renamed 1984 for unknown reasons,
possibly a mere reversal of the last two digits of the year it was written. Orwell’s publisher, Frederic Warburg, suggested a change to
assist in the book's marketing. Orwell did not object to this suggestion. It was first met with conflicting criticisms and acclaim. Some
reviewers disliked its dystopian satire of totalitarian regimes, nationalism, the class system, bureaucracy, and world leaders’ power
struggles, while others panned it as nihilistic prophesy on the downfall of humankind 5. Orwell admits that he was influenced by the
novel We, written by Russian author Eugene Zamiatin. There are striking similarities between the two books. Both Orwell and Zamiatin
belonged to the anti-Utopian School of Thought, which opposed the traditional Utopian philosophy that painted a near-perfect picture of
the world6.

Orwell espoused democratic socialism. In his essay, "Why I Write," published in 1947, two years before the publication of 1984,
Orwell stated that he writes, among other reasons, from the "[d]esire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples' idea
of the kind of society that they should strive after." Orwell used his writing to express his powerful political feelings, and that fact is
readily apparent in the society he creates in 1984 7 .Nineteen Eighty-Four occurs in Oceania, one of three intercontinental super-states
who divided the world among themselves after a global war. Posters of the Party leader, Big Brother, bearing the caption BIG
BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU dominate the landscape. The social class system is threefold: (I) the upper-class Inner Party, (II) the
middle-class Outer Party, and (III) the lower-class Proles, who make up 85% of the population and represent the working classes. As
the government, the Party controls the population via four government ministries: the Ministry of Peace, Ministry of Plenty, Ministry of
Love, and the Ministry of Truth, where protagonist Winston Smith (a member of the Outer Party), works as an editor revising historical
records to concord the past to the contemporary party line orthodoxy—that changes daily—and deletes the official existence
of politically incorrect people identified as unpersons 8.
References:
1
Wikipedia. (2010). George Orwell. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell
2
Johnson, R. (1993). George Orwell (1903-1950). Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://www.levity.com/corduroy/orwell.htm
3
Copyleft. (n.d.). Biography. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/about/biography.html
4
George-orwell.org.(2003). Biography of George Orwell. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://www.george-orwell.org/l_biography.html
5
Merriman, C. (2006). George Orwell. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/
6
Sauder, D. (1999). 1984 by George Orwell. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/monkeynote/pm1984Sample.pdf
7
CliffsNotes. (2010). About 1984 Historical Background. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/1984-About-1984-Historical-Background.id-90,pageNum-9.html#ixzz0zW4PgQf3
8
Wikipedia. (2010). Nineteen Eighty-Four. Retrieved September 13, 2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four