Orwell, George - Literary career and production

Orwell and dystopian genre

George Orwell can be considered one of the main writers of the dystopian genre, a literary movement which describes the most negative picture possible of the present and the future. The fear of the future was expressed for example by the writer William Golding.
Orwell lived during the First and the Second World War; moreover, in 1936 he went to Catalonia and saw horrors of the Spanish Civil War. These experiences influenced his conception of reality and his literary production. In a first moment he believed that it was possible to change positively the realty, but then he developed a distrustful vision of life and for this reason, in his works he shows a devastating critique of totalitarianism warning against the violation of freedom.

Critique of totalitarianism

Orwell’s works express a covered critique to society of his time. In fact, he utilizes a satyrical and allegorical language. His two masterpieces, “Animal Farm” and “1984” express the extreme consequences of totalitarianism. For example, in “1984” Orwell describes a society lead by a figure called “Big Brother” who controls people through the invention of a new language with a limited numbers of words and monitors which watches every step people do.

Education and literary impact

Orwell’s literary production was influenced by the education he received. He was taken to England to attend the Eton college and here he developed an independent personality. This experience contributed to develop Orwell’s negative conception of the realty. This vision of life is evident in Orwell’s works: in “Animal Farm” animals are the allegorical symbol of the power, while in “1984” Orwell shows a world devastated by the total control of people and the prohibition of sex, free thought and any expression of individuality.