The Life and Works of George Orwell: A Journey Through Ideals and Dystopias

Childhood and Education of Eric Born

Eric Born was born in India in 1903, with his mother he went to England where he attended St. Cyprian's school and then Eton. Here he developed an independent minded personality, indifference to accepting values, professed atheism and socialism; since he could not stand the moral code and the pressure to conform to the values of those schools. In 1922 he worked for the Indian Imperial Police, but after five years he left, because he wished to escape from every form of man’s domination over a man.

War Experiences and Writing

Returning to

In 1936 went to Catalonia, write about the Civil War, and recalled his experience in Homage to Catalonia, writing about socialism, equality and his ideals about brotherhood.
During the Second World War Orwell moved to London and joined the BBC, broadcasting political programmes to India; in 1943 he began writing Animal Farm and in 1949 he published Nineteen Eighty-Four, Orwell died the following year.

Social and Political Critique

The many experiences abroad gave him the ability to see his country from another side, so that he could judge his weaknesses, so he chose to establish a new identity, marked by his middle-class background and education and his identification in the working class. In 1940 he explained in Inside the Whale the role of writers of 1920 and 1930, he desired to inform, in his opinion the writer should be independent from a party.

He was a critic and political journalist influenced by Defoe and Swift, but in the themes and realistic language he followed Charles Dickens.He insisted on tolerance and justice, criticized totalitarianism.

Plot of Nineteen Eighty-Four

The novel describes a dystopian world, divided in: Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia. Oceania is ruled by the party, led by the Big Brother, and is at war with the other states. The Party introduced Newspeak, which is a language with a limited number of words and threatens the people with the Thought Police. The main character Winston Smith buys an illegal diary, where he wrote his memories. He works at the Ministry of Truth, in there he rewrites history, one day he met Julia at work and together they decide to fight against the Party. They are invited to the O’Brien flat, who makes them believe that he agrees with the ideas of Emmanuel Goldstein. Actually he is a Party spy, so arrest the two and begins to torture them. At the end when Winston gets out of the Ministry of Love, he has learned to love Big Brother.

Orwell's Political Reflections

The state of perpetual war is similar to World War Two, the idea of the states came in Orwell’s mind during the conference of Tehran. The society reflects the political atmosphere of the tyrannies in Spain, Germany and Soviet Union; Big Brother represents both Hitler and Stalin, since the writer was against every kind of totalitarianism.
The novel takes place in London, the capital of Oceania, a continent that contains America, Atlantic Islands, Australia and the southern portion of Africa. The political structure is divided in: Inner party, the wealthy population, the Outer party, the educated workers and the Proles, this meant for Orwell the existence of conflict and class struggle.

Characters and Themes of Nineteen Eighty-Four

The novel gives a sense of loss. The protagonist his the only one who believes in hu,ame values, he is 39 and physically weak, he experiences alienation from society and has a desire for spiritual integrity. Until his torture he will remain loyal to girl he loves, Julia, who is more naive and pessimistic. While O’Brien tricks them, and has a little background of information.
The novel is a satire on hierarchical societies which destroy fraternity. Orwell believed that if a man had someone to trust, his individuality cannot be destroyed, because his identity arise from interactions. Decency is tolerance towards other peoèle, according to Orwell an egalitarian post revolutionary society should put an end to exploitations.

Historical Context and Disillusionment

In the late 1930’s the news that Stalin had led to the death of 3 million people and many were sent to labor camps reached the West. In 1939 Stalin signed with Hitler a pact of non aggression. In this novel he wrote his disillusionment with all kinds of totalitarianism in the form of a fable, influenced by Gulliver’s travels and the relationship between animals and men.
It is set on a farm where a group of repressed animals, capable of speech and reason, overcame their master, setting up a revolutionary government. The leader of the pigs is

Symbolism and Characters of Animal Farm

The animals are symbols and represent the traits of their species.

Old Major: is a mix between Lenin and Marx, the doctrine he preaches will be the base of the seven Commandments;

Farmer Jones is Czar Nicholas II, he is a drunk farmer who doesn't care about the animals;

Snowball is Trotsky, his bravery is an example for other animals through hi speeches, but his darker side is that he is susceptible to greed;

Napoleon is Stalin, he uses terror and force to maintain his power over the animals;

The dogs are a metaphor for the terror state which Stalin created in Russia to keep order and crush political oppressions.

Tone and Message of Animal Farm

The tone blends humor and sarcasm in a painful atmosphere. The novel shows how an initial idealism can turn into exploitation and ordinary people can lose their freedom.