An introduction to

1984 by George Orwell

About the Author

• George Orwell = a pen name• Real name = Eric Blair• Born in 1903 in India• Educated at a boarding school in England;

despised the school’s rigid discipline; felt outraged and oppressed by rules

About the Author (continued)

• Orwell skipped college and joined the British Imperial Police (in Burma, India); hated this job because as an officer, people feared him

• Volunteered on the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, which is where he gained much insight that inspired him to write very political novels

• Orwell was shot in the throat by a sniper during this war, but he survived; suffered a few weeks of paralysis in his throat (maybe why there are no recordings of him talking?)

About the Author (last one)

• Orwell despised his duties as an officer in the British Imperial Police; quit and fled to England to write

• Struggled as a writer; both Animal Farm and 1984 were difficult to get published in both England and the U.S.

• Died in 1950 during a “routine surgery” after suffering from tuberculosis

Setting of 1984

• Set in Oceania (a fictionalized version of London, England)

• Set in 1984 (a futuristic setting since the novel was written and published in 1948-49)

• Set in the context of a totalitarian government• The proles (the proletarians, or commoners)

are under the control of a mysterious man called Big Brother, who is never seen in person.

Characters

• Winston Smith: main character; a minor member of the Party; 39 years old; a dreamer of sorts

• Julia: the dark-haired girl Winston is mesmerized with; also a Party member

• O’Brien: a mysterious member of the Party with whom Winston is also mesmerized, believing him to be special for several reasons

Characters (continued)

• Big Brother: the ruler of Oceania; never actually seen in the book; may not even exist

• Mr. Charrington: old man who runs a secondhand store in the prole district (proles are proletariats, or the commoners/lower class)

• Syme: an intelligent man who works with Winston; specializes in langauge

Characters (last one)

• Parsons: Winston’s fat, obnoxious neighbor; also a Party member

• Emmanuel Goldstein: according to Big Brother, he is a legendary leader of the Brotherhood; never seen in the novel; seems to be a Party leader who fell out of favor with the regime; an enemy of Big Brother