George Orwell

(1903–1950)
 GEORGE ORWELL
Born
in Motihari, Bihar, India
June 25, 1903

Died
January 21, 1950

Website
http://www.george-orwell.org/

Genre
Fiction, Politics, Journalism

Influences
Charles Dickens, Jonathan Swift, Charles Reade, Yevgeny
Zamyatin, ...more

Eric Arthur Blair, better known by his pen name George

Orwell, was an English author and journalist. His work is
marked by keen intelligence and wit, a profound
awareness of social injustice, an intense opposition to
totalitarianism, a passion for clarity in language, and a
belief in democratic socialism.
George Orwell was a novelist, essayist and critic
best known for his novels Animal
Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was a man of
strong opinions who addressed some of the major
political movements of his times, including
imperialism, fascism and communism.Orwell was
born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, India, on June 25,
1903. The son of a British civil servant, Orwell spent
his first days in India, where his father was
stationed. His mother brought him and his older
sister, Marjorie, to England about a year after his
birth and settled in Henley-on-Thames. His father
stayed behind in India and rarely visited. (His
younger sister, Avril, was born in 1908. Orwell didn't
really know his father until he retired from the
service in 1912. And even after that, the pair never
formed a strong bond. He found his father to be dull
and conservative.According to one biography,
Orwell's first word was "beastly." He was a sick
child, often battling bronchitis and the flu.Orwell
took up writing at an early age, reportedly
composing his first poem around age four.

He later wrote, "I had the lonely child's habit of

making up stories and holding conversations with
imaginary persons, and I think from the very start
my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling
of being isolated and undervalued." One of his first
literary successes came at the age of 11 when he
had a poem published in the local newspaper. Death

Orwell died of tuberculosis in a London hospital on

January 21, 1950. Although he was just 46 years old
at the time of his death, his ideas and opinions have
lived on through his work.
 1984
Winston Smith is a member of the Outer Party. He works in the
Records Department in the Ministry of Truth, rewriting and
distorting history. To escape Big Brother's tyranny, at least inside
his own mind, Winston begins a diary — an act punishable by death.
Winston is determined to remain human under inhuman
circumstances. Yet telescreens are placed everywhere — in his
home, in his cubicle at work, in the cafeteria where he eats, even in
the bathroom stalls. His every move is watched. No place is safe.

One day, while at the mandatory Two Minutes Hate, Winston

catches the eye of an Inner Party Member, O'Brien, whom he
believes to be an ally. He also catches the eye of a dark-haired girl
from the Fiction Department, whom he believes is his enemy and
wants him destroyed. A few days later, Julia, the dark-haired girl
whom Winston believes to be against him, secretly hands him a note
that reads, "I love you." Winston takes pains to meet her, and when
they finally do, Julia draws up a complicated plan whereby they can
be alone.

Alone in the countryside, Winston and Julia make love and begin
their allegiance against the Party and Big Brother. Winston is able
to secure a room above a shop where he and Julia can go for their
romantic trysts. Winston and Julia fall in love, and, while they know
that they will someday be caught, they believe that the love and
loyalty they feel for each other can never be taken from them, even
under the worst circumstances.

Eventually, Winston and Julia confess to O'Brien, whom they believe

to be a member of the Brotherhood (an underground organization
aimed at bringing down the Party), their hatred of the Party. O'Brien
welcomes them into the Brotherhood with an array of questions and
arranges for Winston to be given a copy of "the book," the
underground's treasonous volume written by their
leader, Emmanuel Goldstein, former ally of Big Brother turned
enemy.

Winston gets the book at a war rally and takes it to the secure room
where he reads it with Julia napping by his side. The two are
disturbed by a noise behind a painting in the room and discover a
telescreen. They are dragged away and separated. Winston finds
himself deep inside the Ministry of Love, a kind of prison with no
windows, where he sits for days alone. Finally, O'Brien comes.
Initially Winston believes that O'Brien has also been caught, but he
soon realizes that O'Brien is there to torture him and break his
spirit. The Party had been aware of Winston's "crimes" all along; in
fact, O'Brien has been watching Winston for the past seven years.

O'Brien spends the next few months torturing Winston in order to

change his way of thinking — to employ the concept of doublethink,
or the ability to simultaneously hold two opposing ideas in one's
mind and believe in them both. Winston believes that the human
mind must be free, and to remain free, one must be allowed to
believe in an objective truth, such as 2 + 2 = 4. O'Brien wants
Winston to believe that 2 + 2 = 5, but Winston is resistant.

Finally, O'Brien takes Winston to Room 101, the most dreaded room
of all in the Ministry of Love, the place where prisoners meet their
greatest fear. Winston's greatest fear is rats. O'Brien places over
Winston's head a mask made of wire mesh and threatens to open
the door to release rats on Winston's face. When Winston screams,
"Do it to Julia!" he relinquishes his last vestige of humanity.

Winston is a changed man. He sits in the Chestnut Tree Café,

watching the telescreens and agonizing over the results of daily
battles on the front lines. He has seen Julia again. She, too, is
changed, seeming older and less attractive. She admits that she
also betrayed him. In the end, there is no doubt, Winston loves Big
Brother.
 ANIMAL FARM
One night, all the animals at Mr. Jones' Manor Farm assemble in a
barn to hear old Major, a pig, describe a dream he had about a
world where all animals live free from the tyranny of their human
masters. old Major dies soon after the meeting, but the animals —
inspired by his philosophy of Animalism — plot a rebellion against
Jones. Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, prove themselves
important figures and planners of this dangerous enterprise. When
Jones forgets to feed the animals, the revolution occurs, and Jones
and his men are chased off the farm. Manor Farm is renamed Animal
Farm, and the Seven Commandments of Animalism are painted on
the barn wall.

Initially, the rebellion is a success: The animals complete the

harvest and meet every Sunday to debate farm policy. The pigs,
because of their intelligence, become the supervisors of the farm.
Napoleon, however, proves to be a power-hungry leader who steals
the cows' milk and a number of apples to feed himself and the other
pigs. He also enlists the services of Squealer, a pig with the ability
to persuade the other animals that the pigs are always moral and
correct in their decisions.

Later that fall, Jones and his men return to Animal Farm and
attempt to retake it. Thanks to the tactics of Snowball, the animals
defeat Jones in what thereafter becomes known as The Battle of
the Cowshed. Winter arrives, and Mollie, a vain horse concerned
only with ribbons and sugar, is lured off the farm by another human.
Snowball begins drawing plans for a windmill, which will provide
electricity and thereby give the animals more leisure time, but
Napoleon vehemently opposes such a plan on the grounds that
building the windmill will allow them less time for producing food.
On the Sunday that the pigs offer the windmill to the animals for a
vote, Napoleon summons a pack of ferocious dogs, who chase
Snowball off the farm forever. Napoleon announces that there will
be no further debates; he also tells them that the windmill will be
built after all and lies that it was his own idea, stolen by Snowball.
For the rest of the novel, Napoleon uses Snowball as a scapegoat on
whom he blames all of the animals' hardships.

Much of the next year is spent building the windmill. Boxer, an

incredibly strong horse, proves himself to be the most valuable
animal in this endeavor. Jones, meanwhile, forsakes the farm and
moves to another part of the county. Contrary to the principles of
Animalism, Napoleon hires a solicitor and begins trading with
neighboring farms. When a storm topples the half-finished windmill,
Napoleon predictably blames Snowball and orders the animals to
begin rebuilding it.

Napoleon's lust for power increases to the point where he becomes

a totalitarian dictator, forcing "confessions" from innocent animals
and having the dogs kill them in front of the entire farm. He and the
pigs move into Jones' house and begin sleeping in beds (which
Squealer excuses with his brand of twisted logic). The animals
receive less and less food, while the pigs grow fatter. After the
windmill is completed in August, Napoleon sells a pile of timber
to Jones; Frederick, a neighboring farmer who pays for it with
forged banknotes. Frederick and his men attack the farm and
explode the windmill but are eventually defeated. As more of the
Seven Commandments of Animalism are broken by the pigs, the
language of the Commandments is revised: For example, after the
pigs become drunk one night, the Commandment, "No animals shall
drink alcohol" is changed to, "No animal shall drink alcohol to
excess."

Boxer again offers his strength to help build a new windmill, but
when he collapses, exhausted, Napoleon sells the devoted horse to
a knacker (a glue-boiler). Squealer tells the indignant animals that
Boxer was actually taken to a veterinarian and died a peaceful
death in a hospital — a tale the animals believe.

Years pass and Animal Farm expands its boundaries after Napoleon
purchases two fields from another neighboring farmer, Pilkington.
Life for all the animals (except the pigs) is harsh. Eventually, the
pigs begin walking on their hind legs and take on many other
qualities of their former human oppressors. The Seven
Commandments are reduced to a single law: "All Animals Are
Equal / But Some Are More Equal Than Others." The novel ends with
Pilkington sharing drinks with the pigs in Jones' house. Napoleon
changes the name of the farm back to Manor Farm and quarrels with
Pilkington during a card game in which both of them try to play the
ace of spades. As other animals watch the scene from outside the
window, they cannot tell the pigs from the humans.
WORKS
OF
GEORGE
OSWELL
A DRESSED MAN AND A NAKED MAN

A dressed man and a naked man

Stood by the kip-house fire,
Watching the sooty cooking-pots
That bubble on the wire;

And bidding tanners up and down,

Bargaining for a deal,
Naked skin for empty skin,
Clothes against a meal.

‘Ten bob it is,’ the dressed man said,

‘These boots cost near a pound,
This coat’s a blanket of itself.
When you kip on the frosty ground.’

‘One dollar,’ said the naked man,

‘And that’s a hog too dear;
I’ve seen a man strip off his shirt
For a fag and a pot of beer.’

‘Eight and a tanner,’ the dressed man said,

‘And my life-work is yours,
All I’ve earned at the end of a life
Knocking at farmers’ doors;

Turnips, apples, hops and peas,

And the spike when times are slack,
Fifty years I’ve tobied it
For these clothes upon my back.’
 ‘Take seven,’ said the naked man,
‘It’s cold and the spikes are shut;
Better be naked here in kip
Than dressed in Lambeth Cut.’

‘One tanner more,’ the dressed man said,

‘One tanner says the word,
Off comes my coat of ratcatcher
And my breeches of velvet cord;

Now pull my shirt over my head,

I’m naked sole to crown,
And that’s the end of fifty years
Tobying up and down.’

A minute and they had changed about,

And each had his desire;
A dressed man and a naked man
Stood by the kip-house fire.