1984George Orwell

Biography• His real name was Eric Blair.• Born in Bengal, India in 1903.• His father worked as a minor

customs official.• At the age of 13, he attended

Eton where he studied under Aldous Huxley, later author of a Brave New World.

• Poor grades prevented him from entering Cambridge or Oxford.

• He turned to a career in the colonial service and accepted a post with the Indian Imperial Police.

Biography

• Though he advanced in the imperial police, he was depressed by the English treatment of the Indian people.

• He resigned in 1927 and returned to England.

• After trying his hand at teaching, he decided to try to earn a living at writing.

Spanish Civil War

• Lasted from 1936 to 1939.• Over 500,000 people died.• Nationalists (Facists) vs.

Republicans (Left-socialist_• Orwell fought for the

republicans and was shot through the throat.

• He became disillusioned with the Soviet Union after seeing the corruption of the communist party in Spain.

Novelist

• Wrote several novels during his lifetime.

• Best known for his two final novels: Animal Farm and 1984.

• Both attack totalitarian regimes-mainly the Stalinist Soviet Union.

1984• Dystopian novel about life

within a totalitarian society.

• Written in 1949.• The Cold War was just

starting to begin in earnest.

• Orwell expressing his fear about government controlling every aspect of human life.

BIG BROTHER