George Orwell1984The New American LibraryCopyright 1961George OrwellGeorge Orwell, whose real name was Eric Blair, was born in Bengal, India, in 1903. When he was eight years old, as it was customary, his mother brought him back to England to be educated. He was sent to a boarding school on the south coast, a school whose students were sons of the upper class. He was allowed in with lower tuition and not being from a wealthy background, he was subject to snobbery of the others at the school. In 1917 he went to Eton on a scholarship and he enjoyed himself, making friends and reading many books. Orwell graduated in 1921 and instead of going on to a university; he joined the Civil Service and went to Burma as a sergeant in the Indian Imperial Police. He served as a policeman in Burma from 1922 until he took leave in 1927 and resigned his post.Orwell now had time to think and he decided to live among working-class people in Paris and among the tramps in England for more than a year. During these years he worked as a schoolteacher and got married. Both he and his wife kept a village pub and a village general store. All of these experiences led up to the basis for his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London, which was an autobiographical work he published in 1933. This was his first book and he used the name George Orwell. He explained later that he took the last name from an English river near where he lived and the first name as being typically English. The latter part of his work was written primarily about different things and places that he had experienced. For example, he wrote, Homage to Catalonia, from his experiences in the Spanish Civil War and A Clergyman's Daughter, makes use of his teaching experiences. Orwell died at the young age of forty-seven from neglected lung ailments. In his death he left behind a growing reputation for greatness and the conviction that modern man was inadequate to cope with the demands of his history.It is not apparent that Orwell used any sources in his writing of 1984. If he had, they were not included in my copy of 1984.The Author's ViewsI feel that George Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning after years of brooding on the twin menaces of Nazism and Stalinism. He wanted to lay out the basis of what he thought the world could become. By writing this anti-utopian story, I feel he hoped to frighten us so that we might be on our guard. If a certain city knew of a tornado on the rise, they could be prepared. But, if that tornado hit that same town and they were not expecting it, the potential damage could be far greater. Orwell was warning us.The position the author takes on his story seems to be a hopeful one. He hopes that Winston will end up defeating Oceania's mad system of government and find true love with Julia but he is not writing a love story. He planted his seed (the plot) in some nasty soil. The environment in which he set his story would only allow for Winston to get so far before Big Brother got the...
