George Orwell (1903-1950), British novelist and essayist was born Eric Arthur Blair in the state of Bengal in India. He is remembered to date for his highly satirical novels that reflected his controversial sociopolitical views- Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He spent his life at various places – Eton, India, Burma and Europe. He also fought in the Spanish Civil War on the side of the Republicans in 1936 and was seriously wounded.
His early works were most autobiographical – Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), Burmese Days (1934), The Road to Wigan Pier (1937) and Homage to Catalonia (1938). George Orwell was basically a socialist and he had strong views against imperialism, fascism, Stalinism, and capitalism and his works were based on them. Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’ was a political fable set in a farmyard but based on Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution. This novel brought Orwell the first taste of financial success. ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ was set in an imaginary totalitarian future and the book made a huge impact on its readers with its title and many phrases such as ‘Big Brother is watching you’, ‘newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’ – becoming very popular and widely used. Orwell’s other novels include A Clergyman’s Daughter (1935), Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936), and Coming Up for Air (1940). He also wrote many literary essays of critical acclaim. His volumes of essays include Dickens, Dali and Others (1946), Shooting an Elephant (1950), and the Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell (4 vol., 1968). Orwell died of tuberculosis on 21 January 1950. Thesis: George Orwell is known as the greatest political writer of the twentieth century.
Before Orwell turned writer at the age of thirty he opened himself to a wide range of life experiences by opting for various jobs in various places. His experiences ranged from Eton to service in the colonial police and from short periods as tramp, dishwasher, hop-picker, tutor and teacher to book reviewer and pseudo-Georgian poet. During the next twelve years he worked as a book dealer, farmer, shopkeeper, film critic, broadcaster, editor, columnist and war correspondent to supplement his meager income as an author. He deliberately went in search of experiences and was a keen observer. As his books were mostly political commentaries, they often faced difficulty in getting published. For example, ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’ were rejected by Cape and Faber, the English edition of ‘Burmese Days’ was refused by Cape and Heinemann and Gollancz rejected ‘Homage to Catalonia’. His reputation as an author developed rather slowly and he did not achieve fame till the end of his life. Orwell became famous with the publication of ‘Animal Farm’ in 1945 and ‘1984’ in 1949.
Animal Farm
Animal Farm is of great literary value and is the only work of George Orwell where he does not appear as a narrator, a character, or a commentator. It is a deceptively simple story of barnyard beasts that revolt against their cruel master to run their own society. While the story can be enjoyed by children who love animals, it is also a powerful political satire on Stalinism with embedded warnings about the abuses of unlimited political power. The book is written in a fluent, casual style, peppered with good-natured humor. Orwell uses an ancient literary form, the animal fable, a short allegorical tale that points to a moral truth.
Animal Farm is George Orwell’s most recognized work. When he looked for a publisher for it in February 1944, he immediately encountered difficulties in publishing it because of its radical views against communism. Once published, Animal Farm was immediately and astonishingly successful and sold well both in Britain and in America, and received rave reviews from renowned critics such as Edmund Wilson. The Americans tended to read the Animal Farm as a work that was anticommunism, but Orwell insisted that his work opposed not only Soviet Communism but the general corruption of socialist ideals by the desire for power. The authoritarian autocracy is portrayed in “Animal Farm” as the ruling swine. Thus this book serves a greater purpose of enlightening the society of the evils of totalitarianism. In his Animal Farm, he refers to Stalin’s persecution of Trotsky and the Moscow show trials, in a wickedly funny hypothetical British context, putting Churchill in exile and attributing “dastardly acts of sabotage” to him, like causing an outbreak of hoof-and-mouth disease in the Royal racing stables. The Soviet people, though they were aware of Stalin’s terrorism chose to keep quiet like most of Orwell’s animals that remained submissive to Napoleon after he had some sheep and hens killed as “examples.”
Farmer Jones of Manor farm had been exploiting his farm animals for years so much so they plan to expel him and rule the farm by themselves. The catchy hymn “Beasts of England” sung to the tune of “My Darling Clementine” is chosen to inspire the animals to action by an old boar called Major. After the death of Major, two younger boars, Snowball and Napoleon, who are literate formulate a secret creed of Animalism and teach it to others. One day, the animals finally succeed in revolting against and expelling Jones and his wife and Moses the raven. They begin a new life under the leadership of the intelligent pigs who soon turn dictatorial in nature and call their place the Animal Farm. They decide to take the cow’s milk for themselves as the first sign of their greed. They have devoted followers in draft horses Boxer and Clover who are not very intelligent by having the physical power to build the new society. Initially, the animals are all happy. But soon, Napoleon begins to have conflicts with Snowball regarding governance. Napoleon dominates and imposes his will on the entire farm using Squealer as his propaganda maker and other subordinate pigs. These pigs help him to convince the other animals on the farm to work very hard on very little food, thereby making their lives more miserable than they were under Farmer Jones. In a particular scene, Squealer addresses the animals as “Comrades” and explains to them that even though pigs hate milk and apples, they consume those things for health purposes so that they may be able to manage the farm well and take care of the animals. Squealer also reminds them that in the event of pigs failing in their duty, the animals would face the danger of Mr. Jones’ return. Later, Mr. Jones joins hands with Farmer Pilkington and Farmer Frederick to overthrow the animals and recapture Manor Farm. But this attempt is thwarted by Snowball in a gallant fight. Napoleon now becomes power crazy and orders the killing of animals that have opposed him and forces Snowball into exile. He rules Manor’s farm with an iron hand and even manages to subdue the humans at the Battle of the Windmill at great cost. When Boxer collapses from overwork and old age, Napoleon sells him off for slaughter and uses the money to buy whiskey for himself and his comrades. They begin partying with the humans on their hind legs and realize the truth that “All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others” (Animal Farm, p. 133).
Orwell, in this book, reveals his love for animals by succeeding in endowing animals with convincingly human emotions. Orwell’s revolutionary animal society corresponds perfectly to the socio-political structure of the Soviet Union. Manor Farm refers to the Soviet Union, the “workers’ paradise”, Mr. Jones is Tsar Nicholas II who has driven away from power and killed, Major is Karl Marx, Boxer is the easily manipulated Soviet worker, Napoleon is Stalin, Snowball is Trotsky, Squealer is Pravda, the pigs are the Bolsheviks and so on. The Battle of the Windmill referred to the German invasion of 1941. Boxer, the powerful draft horse is a character that evokes a lot of pathos. Though he is not very bright, he is dependable and willing to work hard and hence he is exploited by the pigs. Smitten by the noble ideals of “Beasts of England” – freedom from cruel human masters, enough barley, hay, oats, and sweet water for all – Boxer works hard for Napoleon and hauls stone until his death, unable to read the letters spelling out the butcher’s name on the van that carries him away.
1984
Orwell completed his last and most powerful novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four” in November 1948, when he was suffering from tuberculosis. The novel depicts the slow moral degradation of Winston Smith. The novel is divided into three parts and is interspersed midway with Orwell’s own sociopolitical theories in a long abstract narrative. Part I of 1984 deals with the growing opposition of Winston Smith to the ruling regime that pressures him to distort the truth. Orwell describes a highly controlling repressive world in 1984 symbolized by the dictum “Big Brother is Watching You”. This world is separated into three geographical nations: Oceania (created when the United States absorbed Britain), Eurasia, and Eastasia, perpetually fighting with one another for social control. Oceania is ruled by Big Brother, a dictator who keeps his people hysterically fearful of foreign attacks. His Inner Party makes up two percent of the population, while his Outer Party is about thirteen percent. Together they rule the remaining masses by forcing them to do meaningless work and getting them addicted to films, work, football, beer, gambling and state-produced pornography. The citizens are exploited by the regime and are not even given good food. The war hysteria among the people is maintained by periodical meaningless subatomic warfare against Eurasia and Eastasia by the Ministry of Peace. Even language is used as a servant of the state. The citizens are given no privacy and Thought Police observe all sounds, movements and heartbeats. The Big Brother government manipulated the children so much so they grew up adoring the party fanatically and nurtured hatred towards anything or anyone opposed to the party and its ideals. In fact, many children turned their parents into the thought police and were hailed as child heroes for such daring acts. Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth and he is the only man with a few memories of his childhood. He indulges in thoughtcrime. He writes a diary in “Oldspeak” the infinitely flexible English language that Big Brother fears as a symbol of individual freedom. On the first page he writes the forbidden statement, “Down with Big Brother!” (p. 19). Part II traces the bond between Smith and Julia, an attractive member of the Anti-Sex League. With the encouragement of O’Brien, they join a secret Anti-Big Brother group called “The Brotherhood”, but are ultimately betrayed by him by the Thought Police. O’Brien is actually a member of the Thought Police who had engineered their affair from the start and he tortures Smith to make him accept the rule of Big Brother. Breaking down under the torture, Smith surrenders to O’Brien and begs to be let free so that he can love Big Brother. Smith is now rewarded with a job in the Ministry of Truth. Later, he meets Julia and they discover they had betrayed each other. Towards the end of the novel, Smith is completely brainwashed into loving submission to Big Brother. The book fictionalizes Soviet totalitarianism through its main characters. Orwell draws on his own personal experiences in the context of political terrorism to describe a life, lived in fear and guilt.The life in Oceania under the rule of Big Brother, described by the book with its stress on loss of privacy and manipulation of the mind by the media has been found by critics to resemble life in Modern America, with the increasing surveillance of the public through CCTV cameras, the warrantless wiretaps, the deluge of propaganda and the specter of war without end. The book thus has a timeless appeal, not only because of its theme but also because of its fluid prose and detailed imagery evoked of the mechanized nightmare world of Oceania.
‘Comrades!’ he cried. ‘You do not imagine, I hope, that we pigs are doing this in a spirit of selfishness and privilege? Many of us actually dislike milk and apples. I dislike them myself. Our sole object in taking these things is to preserve our health. Milk and apples (this has been proved by Sciences, comrades) contain substances absolutely necessary to the well-being of a pig. We pigs are brain-workers. The whole management and organization of this farm depend on us. Day and night we are watching over your welfare. It is for your sake that we drink that milk and eat those apples. Do you know what would happen if we pigs failed in our duty? Jones would come back! Yes, Jones would come back! Surely, comrades,’ cried Squealer almost pleadingly, skipping from side to side and whisking his tail, ‘surely there is no one among you who wants to see Jones come back?
“Nearly all children nowadays were horrible. What was worst of all was that by means of such organizations as the Spies they were systematically turned into ungovernable little savages, and yet this produced in them no tendency whatever to rebel against the discipline of the Party. On the contrary, they adored the Party and everything connected with it. The songs, the processions, the banners, the hiking, the drilling with dummy rifles, the yelling of slogans, the worship of Big Brother – it was all a sort of glorious game to them. All their ferocity was turned outwards, against the enemies of the State, against foreigners, traitors, saboteurs, thought-criminals. It was almost normal for people over thirty to be frightened of their own children. An with good reason, for hardly a week passed in which the Times did not carry a photograph describing how some eavesdropping little sneak – ‘child hero’ was the phrase generally used – had overheard some compromising remark and denounced his parents to the Thought Police”.