George Orwell

George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in 1903 in
India, where his father was a British colonial official. As a small child, he was taken to
England by his mother, and was educated at Eton, a prestigious boys school. After leaving
school, he served in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma (now Myanmar) from 1922 to
1927. He then returned to England and started a social experiment in London spending short
periods in poor lodging houses in the East End and among 'down-and-outs' He also spent time
in Paris, where he worked as a dishwasher in a hotel. Back in England, he published his first
book, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), a non-fiction narrative dealing with his
experiences among the poor. It was followed by Burmese Days
(1934), a novel expressing his rejection of imperialism.
In 1936 he married Eileen O' Shaughnessy, and a left-wing publisher gave him a commission
to carry out a survey on the conditions of the miners, factory workers and unemployed in the
industrial North. His findings appeared in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937).
In December 1936, Orwell went to Catalonia with his wife to report on the Spanish Civil
War. In Barcelona he joined the militia of the POUM (Workers' Party of Marxist Unification)
and fought in the trenches of the Aragon front. In Homage to Catalonia (1938) he recalls this
experience as the time of his true conversion to socialism and the ideals of brotherhood and
equality. During WWII, in 1941, he became a commentator for the BBC but resigned two
years later to become literary editor of The Tribune, an influential socialist weekly.
In 1945 Animal Farm was published and gave Orwell international fame and financial
security. His last book, Nineteen Eighty-Four, was published in 1949 and soon became a
bestseller. Orwell died of tuberculosis the following year.

1984
Summary
The book is set in 1984 in Oceania, one of three perpetually warring totalitarian states (the
other two are Eurasia and Eastasia). Oceania is governed by the all-controlling Party, which
has brainwashed the population into unthinking obedience to its leader, Big Brother. The
Party has created a propagandistic language known as Newspeak, which is designed to limit
free thought and promote the Party’s doctrines. Its words include doublethink (belief in
contradictory ideas simultaneously), which is reflected in the Party’s slogans: “War is peace,”
“Freedom is slavery,” and “Ignorance is strength.” The Party maintains control through the
Thought Police and continual surveillance.
The book’s hero, Winston Smith, is a minor party functionary living in a London that is still
shattered by a nuclear war that took place not long after World War II. He belongs to the
Outer Party, and his job is to rewrite history in the Ministry of Truth, bringing it in line with
current political thinking. However, Winston’s longing for truth and decency leads him to
secretly rebel against the government. He embarks on a forbidden affair with Julia, a
like-minded woman, and they rent a room in a neighbourhood populated by Proles (short for
proletariats). Winston also becomes increasingly interested in the Brotherhood, a group of
dissenters. Unbeknownst to Winston and Julia, however, they are being watched closely
(ubiquitous posters throughout the city warn residents that “Big Brother is watching you.”).

When Winston is approached by O’Brien—an official of the Inner Party who appears to be a
secret member of the Brotherhood—the trap is set. O’Brien is actually a spy for the Party, on
the lookout for “thought-criminals,” and Winston and Julia are eventually caught and sent to
the Ministry of Love for a violent reeducation. The ensuing imprisonment, torture, and
reeducation of Winston are intended not merely to break him physically or make him submit
but to root out his independence and destroy his dignity and humanity. In Room 101, where
prisoners are forced into submission by exposure to their worst nightmares, Winston panics
as a cage of rats is attached to his head. He yells out for his tormentors to “Do it to Julia!” and
states that he does not care what happens to her. With this betrayal, Winston is released. He
later encounters Julia, and neither is interested in the other. Instead Winston loves Big
Brother.

Analysis
Orwell wrote Nineteen Eighty-four as a warning after years of brooding on the twin menaces
of Nazism and Stalinism. Its depiction of a state where daring to think differently is rewarded
with torture, where people are monitored every second of the day, and where party
propaganda trumps free speech and thought is a sobering reminder of the evils of
unaccountable governments. Winston is the symbol of the values of civilized life, and his
defeat is a poignant reminder of the vulnerability of such values in the midst of all-powerful
states.

Animal farm
Mr Jones has got a farm, but he mistreats all his animals. One day, Old Major, the boar of the farm,
tells his companions that he dreamt about a world where animals were free from human beings, their
real enemies. He also teaches them a revolutionary song called Beasts of England. Unfortunately,
though, the old boar suddenly dies three nights later. Consequently, Napoleon, Snowball and Squealer,
three young pigs, decide to take control and prepare the Rebellion. When a drunken Mr Jones forgets
to feed the animals, all the beasts of the farm revolt against Mr Jones and rename their farm as
"Animal farm".In the new Animal Farm, the animals establish to follow the Seven Commandments of
Animalism, that every member of the farm must respect. The most important is the last on : “All
animals are equal”. At the beginning everyone follows the Commandments, but, after a while, the
animals start breaking all the rules. Napoleon and Snowball struggle for pre-eminence until Napoleon
makes the other pig flee using violence. He also starts killing all the animals that don't agree with him,
becoming a dictator and adopting the lifestyle of a man. Beast of England is replaced with an anthem
glorifying Napoleon, but the animals remain convinced that they are better off than they were under
Mr Jones. When Boxer, a good horse, is not able to work any longer because of his injury, Napoleon
sends for a van to take Boxer to a knacker, even if he says that he is sending the horse to a vet. Only
Benjamin, the donkey who can read “as well as any pig”, understands what is happening and attempts
to rescue Boxer unsuccessfully.
All the animals of the farm behave like men: they wear clothes, sleep in beds, drink alcohol and stand
on two feet. Now, even the Seven Commandaments are changed, particulary the last one, that now
states: "All animals are equals, but some are more equal than others". Napoleon abolishes the practice
of the revolutionary traditions and restores the name “The Manor Farm” as well.

analysis
First, a very brief history lesson, by way of context for Animal Farm. In 1917, the Tsar of
Russia, Nicholas II, was overthrown by Communist revolutionaries. These revolutionaries
replaced the aristocratic rule which had been a feature of Russian society for centuries with a
new political system: Communism, whereby everyone was equal. Everyone works, but
everyone benefits equally from the results of that work. Josef Stalin became leader of
Communist Russia, or the Soviet Union, in the early 1920s. However, it soon became
apparent that Stalin’s Communist regime wasn’t working: huge swathes of the population
were working hard, but didn’t have enough food to survive. They were starving to death. But
Stalin and his politicians, who themselves were well-off, did nothing to combat this problem,
and indeed actively contributed to it. But they told the people that things were much better
since the Russian Revolution and the overthrow of the Tsar, than things had been before,
under Nicholas II. The parallels with Orwell’s Animal Farm are crystal-clear. Animal Farm is
an allegory for the Russian Revolution and the formation of a Communist regime in Russia
(as the Soviet Union). We offer a fuller definition of allegory in a separate post, but the key
thing is that, although it was subtitled A Fairy Story, Orwell’s novella is far from being a
straightforward tale for children. It’s also political allegory, and even satire.