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The Influence of George Orwell
One of the most influential and important writer’s of the twentieth century was George Orwell. He achieved wide spread public notice in the late 1940's for his outstanding novels, ‘Animal Farm’(1945) and ‘1984’ (1949). He was also noted for extensive works, including documentaries, essays and editorial criticisms of his contemporaries. One of the clearest authors of his day, Orwell claimed that writing, “ good prose is like a windowpane ”. [ 1 ] Orwell often managed to illustrate the most important social debates of the mid 20th century, "he remained to the end of his life an uncompromising individualist and political idealist and was called by his contemporaries the conscience of his age". [ 2 ] Orwell greatest achievement was his ability to voice the concerns of the common people. Unlike most writers of his time, he championed the rights of the poor and disadvantaged. It is important to analyze the heritage and background of George Orwell, in order to understand the complexity of his writings, and the commentary of the times they describe.
Orwell’s background and heritage
The events that shaped young Orwell’s life, would be forever linked to the his later concepts, “Autobiography is only to be trusted when it reveals something disgraceful. A man who gives a good account of himself is probably lying, since any life when viewed from the inside is simply a series of defeats”. [ 3 ] Orwell was born in 1903 at the Indian Village Motihari as Eric Authur Blair. He later adapted his more famous pen name of George Orwell. India was basically a colony of the British empire at the time of Blair's birth. The Blair family had a tradition going back to the 19th Century of career employment, both in the Church of England and the Colonial Civil Service. Orwell’s father Richard Blair held a minor post as an agent in the Opium Department of the Indian Civil Service. The opium trade with China had been legalized as a British government monopoly in 1860. Eric’s father continued to work in India until Richard Blair retired in 1912. Orwell’s paternal grandfather had also been part of the British Raj, and had served in the Indian Army. The Blair family life was a relatively privileged and mostly pleasant existence in India, helping to administer the British empire. However, the Blair family was not considered wealthy and Orwell later described them as “Lower-Upper-Middle Class”. [ 4 ]
Essentially, the Blair family was like many middle-class English families of the period, almost completely dependent on the British Empire for their livelihood. When Orwell humorously characterized his family’s social standing as ‘lower-upper-middle class’, he was referring to the fact that they lived with all the pretensions of the well-healed bourgeoisie and none of the finances to match. Later in Orwell's early novels he wrote many satirical sketches of his extended family memories. Eric's mother was Ida Mabel Blair, she was a daughter of a French teak merchant and came from a family of old Burma hands. Richard and Ida were married in 1896 when he was 39 and she was 21. In spite of Richard Blair being much older that his bride, the two enjoyed a long and happy marriage. By 1904, Eric Blair moved to England with his mother and elder sister Marjorie. When the family returned to England they lived at Henley, where Eric began his education at the Anglican Convent. When Eric Blair reached the age of eight, he was sent to St Cyprian's preparatory school in Eastbourne. Blair's parents wanted a
good education for their children, so they sent their son to a private preparatory school. Except for holidays, he stayed at the boarding school until the age of thirteen. Orwell described these early years as having an effect on his eventual decision to become a writer, “I think from the very
start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued.”. [ 5 ] Some of the early literary influences on Eric were authors that appealed to him the most, Jack London, W.G.Wells and Swift, who he would later be compared with. Then at the age of thirteen he won a scholarship to Wellington.
Unfortunately, Blair disliked the military spirit at Wellington and obtained a transfer to Eton College after a short time (only nine weeks). A biography would later described this period of young Blair’s life, “Orwell was convinced that he was indeed an odd man out. As a schoolboy athlete, he was described as ‘conspicuously bad,’ ‘very slack,’ and ‘not at all energetic’ ”. [ 6 ] After leaving Wellington in 1917, Blair entered the public school system. He was admitted to Eton College, “he became a King's Scholar at Eton, of which he retained fond memories, partly because of his involvement with the various school magazines and papers.” [ 7 ] During this era, students from Eton College almost always advanced to higher education at university, generally Oxford or Cambridge . But Eric's father did not favor his son going to Oxford University, and when Eric finished the final examinations at Eton as 138th of 167, he failed to win a scholarship. Since Eric Blair did not exhibit a desire for the life that upper English education had to offer, Blair eventually shunned further formal schooling .
At this point the young man did not have many choices, so he decided to enter the exams for the Imperial Indian Police Force. In 1922 he sailed for Burma, where he was to serve for five long and isolated years. He gradually began to reject British imperialism . Having spent a good portion of his life watching and even participating in the oppressive methods of the declining British Empire, he began to develop a unique world view. This would later serve him well as a writer, critic and political essayist. The final straw came with the realization that he had become part of the problem, “I perceived in this moment that when the white man turns tyrant it is his own freedom that he destroys”. [ 8 ] In 1927, Blair returned to Britain and resigned from the police force with the intention of becoming a writer. When Blair resigned from his post in Burma, he resolved to speak out against the domination of any person over another.
Orwell’s accomplishments
After returning from India, Orwell eventually developed an extensive body of accomplishments, “In 16 years Orwell wrote nine major books and 700 essays and articles. Animal Farm remains the greatest political satire since Swift”.[ 9 ] In 1931 his essay ‘A Hanging’ was published under his really name Eric Blair, in the Adelphi journal. It is a revealing look into the brutality and oppression of a colonial government over its subjects. In 1933, Orwell wrote ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’, which was his first full length novel to be published. It is an account of a young Orwell and his experiences with poverty in Paris and London. The book did very well for a first novel and this is when he adapted his more famous pen name of George Orwell. In many ways it was a mix of journalism and an autobiographical novel with a focus on poverty. Orwell’s second novel was ‘Burmese Days’. It was a fictional novel based on Orwell’s experiences working for the Imperial Indian Police in Burma. Because of reservations by the publisher about insulting Burma or the British Government, this novel was first published in the U.S. rather than in England.
His next two novels were ‘A Clergyman’s Daughter’ and ‘Keep the Appidistra Flying’. ‘A Clergyman’s Daughter’ was published in 1935, and is a fictional journey through the life of the main character, Dorothy Hare. Another saga of escape and self-exploration, ‘Keep the Apidistra Flying’ was published in 1936. This is a novel about middle-class decline and compromise,
Orwell later regarded these novels as failures. ‘The Road to Wigan Pier’ was written for the Left Book Club in 1936 and was Orwell’s fourth novel. This book marked the start of Orwell’s career change to political writing. The first part of this book is reporting on the poor and unemployed of Northern Britain. The second part of the novel is an essay discussing class struggle and socialism. It was the first fully expressed statement of Orwell’s political positions.
‘Homage to Catalonia’, was Orwell’s fifth novel and completed his break with the orthodox left. It is an attempt to tell the truth about the Spanish Civil War from Orwell’s point of view. The genre this book belonged to was later defined by Orwell as a type of Political book, a sort of enlarged pamphlet combining history with political criticism. Orwell came to believe that ‘Homage to Catalonia’ was the best book he had ever written. Orwell wrote his sixth novel during the winter of 1938 , ‘Coming Up for Air’. Which is the discovery by the character George Bowling, that his boyhood home had changed like everything else. It is regarded by many as one of his best novels, with the possible exceptions of ‘Animal Farm’ and ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. It illustrates in great detail, the fact that everything peaceful eventually becomes corrupt.
After ‘Coming Up for Air’, Orwell wrote one of his most-loved novels, ‘Animal Farm’. It is the fairy tale of an animal revolution on the Manor Farm, where the animals create a socialistic republic in which “Some animals are more equal than others”. The book is an allegorical essay on the Russian Revolution. By the end of the book the pigs disobey the laws of ‘Animal Farm’, and then they begin to change the laws to fit their needs. It was intended to be a parody of the Communist Manifesto. Orwell later explained his writing style for the novel this way, “Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried, with full consciousness of what I was doing, to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole” . [10]
Animal Farm was followed by Orwell’s last novel, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’. Another of Orwell’s best novels, ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ is the story of Winston Smith. Smith was a member of a totalitarianist party ruled by the omnipresent Big Brother. There was no freedom for the masses, no privacy and no free choice. No friendship or love was ever allowed in their society. There was only worship for Big Brother. It is the story of Smith’s secret rebellion from the party through love, free thought and free choice. Many believe it to be Orwell’s greatest achievement. Unfortunately, Orwell did not have long to enjoy the public adulation, for he was terminally ill with tuberculosis. His friend Cyril Connolly had observed, "The tragedy of Orwell's life is that when at last he achieved fame and success he was a dying man and knew it". [11]
Orwell’s influence in the area of the arts.
One of George Orwell’s main contributions to literature was to clarify the political debates of his time, “Orwell's vigorous prose style helped raise political-literary journalism to an art”. [12] His second important contribution to literature was his ability to force modern writing to be truthful. Not only from a political sense, as demonstrated in his many of his writings, but also from an esoteric point of view. Orwell not only demanded clarity from his own writing, but expressed distaste for a sloppiness that he felt prevailed in much of modern writing. Orwell believed that the tendency of twentieth century writing was to avoid concreteness. He concluded the attraction for this kind of writing is that it is easy. Orwell demonstrates this form of writing, “It is easier--even quicker, once you have the habit to say ‘In my opinion it is not an unjustifiable assumption that’... than to say, I think”. [13]
Orwell had a rare gift to express powerful ideology in very little space. Orwell believed that for every sentence written, the scrupulous writer would ask themselves at least four questions as they
wrote. The first and most important question is, what am I trying to say? Orwell believed that many modern writers diluted their message, in an attempt to conceal their hidden agenda. Orwell always had a distinct impression of his topic and developed a specific outline that the reader could clearly follow. The second question the prudent writer should ask is, what words will express it? Here Orwell’s focus was on the exact language that would clearly express the specific topic he had in mind. Orwell did not want to leave any doubt in the readers mind as to his true intent. The third question a writer should ask is, what image or idiom will make it clearer? Orwell often used imaging to highlight his message, in his famous essay ‘the Hanging’, he used the image of the dog playing in the courtyard to illustrate the cruelty used to dispose of the prisoner. By not allowing the prisoner the simple human kindness of playing with an animal, and then by showing the dog’s embarrassment at realizing the man’s eventual demise. This image clearly focused the reader on the coldness of the execution. The four question a good writer must then ask, is this image fresh enough to have an effect? Orwell was constantly working at producing fresh images during his professional career, which is evident in many of his works. As time passed by, Orwell went from clumsy examples of imagery early in his career, to the ability of sharply focusing images in order to punctuate his prose, most notably in his final work, ‘1984’ . Who can forget the image of Winston Smith, being tortured for his political beliefs, when the rat (his greatest fear) grew closer.
Orwell also believed that after satisfying the four fundamental questions to writing, the writer should probably ask two more questions. These questions are more to do with editing, but clearly have a great impact on the essence of the prose as well . “Could I put it more shortly?”, Orwell was always concentrating on developing his ideas in as little space as possible. This has the net effect of focusing the reader on the concepts and principles of the writing. Orwell believed in focusing on the message, not the messenger. The last question a good writer will ask, “Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?” . Once again, Orwell became a master of clean and well scripted writing, simply by focusing on what was important . At the end of his essay ‘Why I Write’, he refers to times he had abandoned this concept and the results that were produced, “ I was betrayed into purple passages, sentences without meaning, decorative adjectives and humbug generally”. [14]
George Orwell was one of those special writers, the kind the could immerse the reader into a tale. Most everyone that has read one of his works, receives something from the experience. Orwell had a unique ability to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. Orwell once commented that, “looking back through my work, I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books”. [15] George Orwell was one of the most talented and important authors in modern literature. His works speak out against hypocrisy, poverty and injustice. His style has influenced many modern authors and will influence many more authors to come.
© 2000 Mike W. Boitano
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BIBLIOGRAPHY *
[ 1] Orwell, George “Why I Write” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/write.htm
[ 2] Books and Writers “George Orwell”(1903-1950) http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gorwell.htm
[ 3] Orwell, George “Notes on Dali” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/dali.htm
[ 4] The Chestnut Cafe “The Complete Works of George Orwell (Reviews)” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/complete.htm
[ 5] Orwell, George “Why I Write” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/write.htm
[ 6] The Chestnut Cafe “George Orwell (Biography)” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/orwell.htm
[ 7] The Chestnut Cafe “George Orwell, Introduction” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/intro.htm
[ 8] Orwell, George “ Shooting an Elephant”
http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/shoot.htm
[ 9] The Chestnut Cafe “George Orwell (Biography)” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/orwell.htm
[10] Orwell, George “Why I Write” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/write.htm
[11] The Chestnut Cafe “George Orwell (Biography)” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/orwell.htm
[12] The Chestnut Cafe “George Orwell (Biography)” http://www.seas.upenn.edu:8080/~allport/chestnut/orwell.htm
[13] Orwell, George “Politics And The English Language" http://www.thineownself.com/orwell.html
[14] Orwell, George “Why I Write” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/write.htm
[15] Orwell, George “Why I Write” http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/write.htm
* Mike W. Boitano Civ3 11-29-00
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