1984 George Orwell

Jack Eades Eades 1

Honors English 2nd Hr.

1 December 2014 An Enigma Named Orwell As George Orwell once said,"Ignorance is Strength." However, Orwell surprises his readers by defining ignorance as a strength, because in his mind, being aware of the many dangers of the government is not to the benefit of anyone. This simple statement reflects the opinions he has for a totalitarian government, and the way he sees the future of the world. In his novels 1984 and Animal Farm, the dumbing down of society, the loss of independent thought and freedom, and man versus society are all prevalent themes in his writing. Orwell used early childhood experiences with composition and his

George Orwell was raised in India the first year of his life, where his father was stationed as a British civil servant, who cared highly about his social status. Orwell was often lonely, and had little friends because of his mature thinking (Woodcock 1, Orwell 1).

He almost never saw his father, and being the only boy, this lead him to become lonely, and allowed him to explore writing (Orwell 1).

“‘Their attitudes were those of the 'landless gentry,’ as Orwell later called lower-middle-class people whose pretensions to social status had little relation to their income. Orwell was thus brought up in an atmosphere of impoverished snobbery.” -Woodcock 1

With his mother and sister Avril, Orwell left India and was raised in England (Woodcock 1).

In England, Orwell attended a private school, where he was picked on and didn’t “fit in” because of his mature manner and desire for composition. (Merriman

Interestingly, Orwell and his wife decided to stand up for the Spanish Government and joined ‘Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista’, also known as POUM. During this time, many of Orwell’s companions were killed, yet he and his wife safely escaped in 1937 which prompted him to compose the true story Homage to Catalonia. (Merriman 2)

During the years of World War II, Orwell turned back to what he did best, freelance writing. He wrote for New English Weekly, The Tribune and New Statesman. (Merriman 2)

Continuing on, Orwell typically wrote stories that included a deep meaning, and others that were a simple read and a “journal” of his many life experiences (Woodcock 2).

Orwell had began writing at the age of four, works such as poems and short stories that led him to discover a side of him that incorporated a “political tone” in his writing (Marlend 76).

As a young child, he especially disliked instruction from his teachers which eventually become evident in his later pieces. Because of the fact that Orwell had lived during major wars, he had an idea of what generally happened when a political figure was granted power (Voornees