Influences That Inspired 1984

Part 1: Social Class

Review: What is Social Class?

* personal or household per person income or wealth / net worth, including the ownership of land, property, means of production, etc. * occupation/type of work one does * education and qualifications * family background

Those who can attain a position of power in a society will often adopt distinctive lifestyles to emphasize their prestige and to further rank themselves within the powerful class. Often the adoption of these things, like the ones below, is as important as one's wealth in determining class status, at least at the higher levels:

* costume and grooming * manners and cultural refinement/exclusivity. * political standing in a place of worship, government, and/or social clubs, as well as the use of honorary titles * reputation of honor or disgrace * language. The distinction between elaborate or complicated ways of speaking, which are seen as a marker for being "upper-class", and more straightforward or plain ways of speaking, which are associated with "lower classes"

Societal ranking and privilege. It is a hierarchy based on what a society determines power to be. One’s class is where one stands in society based on a variety of factors:

Reflection Questions 1:

How has social class impacted your life? What social class do you consider yourself now? What social class do you think you will be when you die? Why?

What are the social classes in 1984? How are they distinguished from one another?

Written in 1948 by George Orwell, the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair

Eric Blair was born in 1903 into a middle class English family in India. When he was young, his family relocated back to England. He was a strong student and earned a scholarship to Eton (Eat-un) College, the most prestigious high school in England (princes and future prime ministers attended Eton) .

While at Eton, Blair felt isolated and alone, largely because he was not from the upper class or nobility like the majority of Eton students. His parents did not have enough money to send him to university without a scholarship. Due to his poor academic performance he did not qualify for any.

Past students of Eton College are Old Etonians. In recent years, the school has become popular with the British Royal Family; Princes William and Harry are Old Etonians. Eton has also produced eighteen British Prime Ministers. A rising number of students come to Eton from overseas, including members of royal families from Africa and Asia, some of whom have been sending their sons to Eton for generations.

The Eton Campus

Eton students in their uniforms

Reflection Questions 2:

What do you think life was like for Eric Blair (Orwell) given what you have learned about a place like Eton?

What do you think YOUR life would be like if you chose, or were pressured, to go to a school whose climate was like nothing you had ever seen in your entire life?

How do you think Eton is reflected in the book? Has it changed very much in 500 years? Why do you think this is?

Blair decided to join the Imperial Police and was assigned to Burma.

Leaves Burma and the Imperial Police and decides to become a writer.

While in Burma, he sees incredible poverty and how the British Empire was concerned with obtaining labor from poor people in order to sustain itself.

What do you think life was like for Blair (Orwell) in Burma? What do you think he did as a foreign policeman there?

How is a place like Burma portrayed in the book (think of the section on Oligarchical Collectivism? Does knowing that Orwell saw how a powerful country (Britain) treated a poorer country (Burma) firsthand change the way you think of the book at all? Why or why not?

Reflection Questions 3:

Blair decides to live in the working class neighborhoods of London and live as a member of the proletariat. During this time he rejects his middle class values and comes to admire the working class people of London. His time among them inspires his portrayal of the “proles” in 1984.

In 1928 he moves to Paris, makes a living as a journalist and dishwasher so that he could stay among working people. He continues to write and pursue his dream of becoming a full-time author.

Reflection Questions 4:

Why do you think Orwell wanted to live amongst the proles in his own life?

How does Winston think of the proles? What does this say about Orwell’s own experience among working people in London?

Do you agree with Winston/Orwell’s assessment of the working class people of the world, that if there is any hope for change that it rests in them? Justify your position.

From 1932-34 Blair teaches at a continuation/vocational high school.

While teaching, he publishes several novels: Down and Out in Paris and London, A Clergyman’s Daughter and Burmese Days.

His most important novel of this period was the Road To Wigan Pier. The Road to Wigan Pier was published in 1937. The first half of this work documents his investigations the industrial north of England before World War II. The second half is a long essay of his upbringing, and the development of his political conscience, which includes a serious criticism of some aspects of British socialist attitudes and behavior.

Creates the pen-name, George Orwell, which he will be known by for the rest of his life.

Reflection Questions 5:

Why do you think Orwell taught at a continuation/vocational school? What do you think this says about him, especially given his educational history?

Do you think one needs to live as a member of a particular social class in order to fully understand that class? Why or why not?

Why do you think Orwell, in The Road to Wigan Pier is critical of the political parties that supposedly speak and fight for the working class? How is this reflected in 1984?