George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)

Done by:Alastair Pang Xian Xun (22)Li Jia Wang (13)Jonathan Choong (10)

Terminology Part I

Wiki – • Totalitarianism is a political system where the

state, usually under the control of a single political organization, faction, or class domination, recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.

• Stalinism was the "theory and practice of communism" practiced by Joseph Stalin, leader of the Soviet Union from 1928–1953.

Joseph Stalin

Terminology Part II• Imperialism the creation and maintenance of an

unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination.

• An autocracy is a form of government in which one person possesses unlimited power.

• Trotskyism is not a new movement, a new doctrine, but the restoration, the revival of genuine Marxism as it was expounded and practiced in the Russian revolution and in the early days of the Communist International.

Facts about him• He was a novelist, political writer and journalist,

and is renowned for attacking totalitarianism through writing books. He devoted much of his life to various causes critical of capitalism, imperialism, fascism, and Stalinism.

• He was disgusted by his first-hand glimpse of imperialism.

• Through his experiences, he became suspicious of any political doctrine which violated the basic human rights of the individual. Political idealism led him to fight on the Loyalist side in the Spanish Civil War.

Books he wrote• Down and Out in Paris and London ( 1933 )—about his self imposed

poverty after leaving Burma. It also exposes the lower-class of Paris and is an account of his days in poverty.

• Burmese Days (1934 )—about experiences as part of the Indian imperial police in Burma.

• The Road to Wigan Pier ( 1937—concerning the nearly impoverished miners in Wigan.

• Homage to Catalonia(1938)—recount of experiences fighting for loyalists in the Spanish Civil War.

• Nineteen Eighty-Four ( 1948 ) {[ironic..]} —about a negative ideal of a community or society showing his fears of of a intrusively regulated state of the future.

Animal Farm

•Animal Farm ( 1945 )—reflecting his distrust in the autocratic government, and also attacking Stalinism.

•“Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the animals.”

“Quotes”

• “ Where I lacked a political purpose, I wrote lifeless books.”

• “A family with the wrong members in control; that, perhaps, is as near as one can come to describing England in a phrase.”

• “As I write, highly civilized human beings are flying overhead, trying to kill me.”

Quotes II•“Freedom is the right to tell people what they

do not want to hear.”

•“The quickest way of ending a war is to lose it.”

•“If you have embraced a creed which appears to be free from the ordinary dirtiness of politics - a creed from which you yourself cannot expect to draw any material advantage - surely that proves that you are in the right?”

Experiences in his life and inspiration

• From his essay “Why I Write”;“First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession (the Indian Imperial Police, in Burma), and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the first time fully aware of the existence of the working classes, and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism: but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. Then came Hitler, the Spanish Civil War, etc. By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision.” He goes on to say;“The Spanish war and other events in 1936-37 turned the scale and thereafter I knew where I stood. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism, as I understand it.”

Experiences in his life and inspiration Part II• He grew to love the Burmese and resent the

oppression of imperialism after joining the Indian Imperial Police in Burma and decided to become a writer instead. Works he wrote influenced by this period of his life are his essay “A Hanging” (1931); “It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man.” and “Shooting an Elephant” (1936); “It is a serious matter to shoot a working elephant – it is comparable to destroying a huge and costly piece of machinery.”.

Spanish civil war• During the Spanish civil war, in Barcelona, he joined

the anti-Stalinist Spanish Trotskyist ‘Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista’ or POUM, the Workers’ Party of Marxist Unification. He and Eileen, his wife, barely escaped with their lives in 1937.

• Blair volunteered to fight for the Republicans against Franco's Nationalist uprising. As a sympathiser of the Independent Labour Party (of which he became a member in 1938) in which he fought as an infantryman. In Homage to Catalonia he described his admiration for the apparent absence of a class structure in the revolutionary areas of Spain he visited. He was shot in the neck on May 20 1937 by a sniper while fighting in the war.

Key timeline of his life• 1903–born at Motihari, Bengal, India, June 25th, son of Richard Walmesley

Blair and Ida Mabel Blair (née Limouzin)• 1904–Brought to England by his mother. settles in Henley-on-Thames,

Oxfordshire• 1914–First work published: Awake Young Men of England (poem)• 1917-1921–King's Scholar, Eton College• 1922–Blair attends cramming establishment in Southwold (January-June), to

prepare for India Office examinations• 1922-1927–Assistant Superintendent of Police, Indian Imperial Police, Burma• 1928-1929–Lives in Paris, writing later working as a dishwasher.

Hospitalized with Pneumonia (February)• 1930-1931–Goes tramping in London and Home Counties. Writes early

version of Down and Out in Paris and London. Contributes essays to Adelphi (The Spike and The Hanging) under his own name

• 1933–First book, Down and Out in Paris and London published by Victor Gollancz. Uses pseudonym "George Orwell" for the first time. Teaches at Frays College, Middlesex. Hospitalized with pneumonia

Key timeline of his life• 1934–Gives up teaching. Spends ten months in

Southwold. Burmese Days published in United States (October). Moves to Hampstead, London (November)

• 1934-1935 Works as part-time assistant in Booklover's Corner, Hampstead. A Celergyman's Daughter published (March 1935). Burmese Days published in England (June 1935). Meets Eileen O'Shaughnessy, age 30 1938

• In tuberculosis sanitorium, Kent. Homage to Catalonia published (April). Joins ILP (June). Goes to Morocco for his health (September)

• 1939–Returns to England (March). Coming Up for Air published (June). Death of father

• 1940–Inside the Whale published (March). Moves to London (May). Writes reviews for Time and Tide and Tribune. Joins Local Defense Volunteers (Home Guards)

Key timeline of his life• 1941–The Lion and the Unicorn published (February)• Literary Editor of Tribune• 1945–War correspondent for The Observer in Paris and

Cologne (March-May). Death of Eileen while under anesthetic for operation (March 29). Covers first post-war election campaign (June-July). Animal Farm published (August)

• 1946–Critical Essays published (February). Moves to Barnhill, Isle of Jura (May)

• 1947–Enters Hairmyres Hospital, near Glasgow, with tuberculosis of the left lung (Christmas Eve)

Key timeline of his life• 1948–Returns from hospital to Jura (July).

Completes revision of Nineteen Eighty-Four by December

• 1949–Enters Cotswolds Sanitorium, Cranham, Gloucestershire (January). Nineteen Eighty-Four published (June). Over 400,000 copies sold in first year. Transferred from Cranham to University College Hospital, London (September). Marries Sonia Bronwell, an editorial assistant with Horizon, in hospital (October)

• 1950–Dies suddenly in University College Hospital, of a hemorrhaged lung (January 21). Buried in the chruchyard of All Saints, Sutton Courtney, Berkshire

Bibliography • www.brainyquotes.com• Penguin Student Edition : Animal Farm by

George Orwell and Study Guide to Animal Farm

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell

• http://www.levity.com/corduroy/orwell.htm• http://www.historyguide.org/europe/orwell.html• http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/•  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperialism• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism

End

Thank you.

Q and A session

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