1984 by George OrwellBuilding Background

“George Orwell”

• He was born Eric Blair in 1903 in Bengal, India

• George Orwell was a pen name– George- common English

name and Saint George– Orwell- a river near his

parents’ house

About the Author

• He returned to England at the age of 1.

• He attended various private schools and eventually ended up at Eton College, a public boys’ boarding school.

• His parents didn’t have enough money to send him to university, and so he joined the Indian Imperial Police in Burma where he stayed until 1927. He left because he realized he hated imperialism.

About the Author• Upon returning home from Burma, he

decided to live in the poorest sections of both London and Paris and used these experiences as fuel for his writing. At one point he tried to get himself arrested, so he could spend Christmas in prison in order to have material to write about.

• These experiences inspired his first book, Down and Out in Paris and London

• He worked briefly as a school teacher until his health forced him to resign

• He briefly moved to Northern England to write about the social conditions in the coal mines inspiring, The Road to Wigan Pier.

• He married Eileen O’Shaughnessy, a graduate student in psychology

About the Author• In 1936, soon after the outbreak of

the Spanish Civil War, Orwell volunteered to fight against the uprising and where he became very disillusioned with communism. He was shot in the neck and returned to England. He wrote about his experiences in Homage to Catalonia.

• At the outbreak of WWII, he tried to join the army, but he wasn’t allowed to join because of his health.

• In 1941, He worked as a journalist in the Indian Service of the BBC in London and published several essays

• He wrote Animal Farm, in 1944, an allegorical critique of communism.

About the Author

• He wrote Animal Farm, in 1944, an allegorical critique of communism.

• In March of the following year, while he was out of the country, his wife, Eileen, died during minor surgery. Orwell became both father and mother to their ten-month-old adopted son, Richard.

About the Author

• In 1947, Orwell and his son moved to the remove Island of Jura, off of Scotland while he worked on his last novel 1984.

• The damp climate damaged his weak lungs further, and he died in 1950 of a tubercular hemorrhage. He was 46.

Totalitarianism• Totalitarianism is a political

system in which the state holds total authority over the society and seeks to control all aspects of public and private life wherever possible.

• It attempts to control all aspects of the social life including economy, education, art, science, private life and morals. economy, education, art, etc.

• Ex. Nazi Germany, North Korea, Iraq under Saddam Hussein

Communism

• Communism- social and economic system structured upon common ownership of the means of production with an absence of social classes, money, and the state

• Ex. China, Cuba, USSR

Socialism

• Socialism is a social and economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and co-operative management of the economy

• Ex. Denmark, Finland, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden

The Conditions Behind the Vision• In 1946 when George Orwell

began to imagine a future world, he had just witnessed the defeat of two dictators – Adolf Hitler in Germany and Benito Mussolini in Italy

• He had also witnessed the success of two other dictators – Francisco Franco in Spain and Josef Stalin in the former Soviet Union

• He had also just lived through the most devastating war in history and seen its victors turn on each other in a tense cold war

• Orwell’s vision of the future came from what he knew of the recent past

The Novel- 1984- Setting• Setting:

– A dystopia (a world that went wrong)

– Oceania • in a state of constant war with

surrounding countries

– Airstrip 1: the Capital City (formerly Great Britain)

– Ever-present government surveillance and public manipulation

– Political system: “English Socialism” or Ingsoc

– The government is controlled by the Inner Party that persecutes individualism and calls it “thoughtcrimes”

The Novel- Social Organization• Classes in Oceania:

– Inner Party- 2% of population, upper class, and they rule

– Outer Party- middle class, 13% of population

– Proles- lower class, 85% of population

• Party controls the people with 4 ministries:– The Ministry of Peace- deals with war

and defense– The Ministry of Plenty- deals with

economic affairs (rationing and starvation

– The Ministry of Love- deals with law and order (torture/brainwashing)

– The Ministry of Truth- deals with news, entertainment, education, and art (censorship)

The Novel- Characters

• Major Characters- – Winston Smith- protagonist– Julia- Winston’s love and a

rebel– Big Brother- dark-eyed,

mustached embodiment of the Party who rules Oceania

– O-Brien- a member of the Inner Party

– Emmanuel Goldstein- an enemy of the state

The Novel: Newspeak

• The official language of Oceana. It is “politically correct” speech. It is based on standard English, but all words describing “unorthodox” political ideas have been removed.

• An attempt to remove the overall number of words to limit the number of ideas that could be expressed.

• The aim was to provide a way of speaking that required no thought what-so-ever.

1984 and Irony

Situational Irony- When what actually happens is different from what one expects.Verbal Irony- When what one actually means is different from what one says.

• Orwell uses irony all over the place. He might name something the opposite of what it’s actual function is. Or people do the opposite action from what they say.– Ex. The Ministry of Love-

sounds nice, but is actually responsible for torture and brainwashing.

1984 and Symbolism

• Objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent larger ideas or concepts

• Orwell relies on symbolism a lot, so look out for people or objects that tend to recur and could represent a larger idea!