The Themes and Motivations Behind George Orwell's 1984

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ABSTRACT

Anyone who considers themselves a lover of good fiction must know who George Orwell is.

Anyone who loves good cynical fiction has to have read his master piece, simply titled 1984.

1984 is a phenomenal tale of government gone awry, in its attempts to unify what’s left of the

world, after the atomic wars waged in Europe. The story is based on Mr. Orwell’s fears of

immensely powerful governments, especially totalitarianism. If you are a true lover and you

have read the story, The next logical question one must ask themselves is, do we understand why he wrote this wonderful piece of work? Please allow me the opportunity to enlighten you. In

order to understand the why; I propose that we must look into the following: his life, the time

period in which he lived and the body of work of the late, great Mr. George Orwell.

Our esteemed author was born Eric Arthur Blair, on the 25th of June in 1903. He was born in

India to Richard Walmesley Blair and Ida Mabel Blair, approximately 300 miles from where his

mother was raised as a child.

Eric’s father worked in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service and his mother was a

stay at home mom. Eric was blue collar by today’s standards; he wrote, later in life, that his

family as “lower-upper-middle class”. (Bowker, n.d.)

Eric was the middle child of three children to Richard and Ida. He had two sisters,

Marjorie and Avril. Marjorie was 5 years older than Eric and Avril was 5 years his younger.

George would later admit to never feeling very close to his sisters.

At the age of one year, George, his sisters and his mother moved to England and settled at

Henley on Thames. Eric was raised in the company of his mother and sist...

... middle of paper ...

...hy - A Biography of George Orwell." George Orwell - Complete Works, Biography, Quotes, Essays.

Retrieved from http://www.george-orwell.org/l_biography.htm.

Davison, Peter Hobley. (1996) George Orwell a Literary Life. Available from

http://books.google.com/books?id=xE92d-QURrEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Davison,+Peter+Hobley.+George+Orwell+a+Literary+Life&source

Widman, Richard A. (N.d) "GEORGE ORWELL." Committee for Open Debate on the Holocaust.

Retrieved from http://www.codoh.com/thoughtcrimes/tcportorw.html.

Joseph Stalin (n.d.). Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalin

Nazi Party (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_Party

Adolf Hitler (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_hitler

George Orwell (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_orwell

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