Huxley, Orwell and Other Fun People

http://www.prosebeforehos.com/image-of-the-day/08/24/huxley-vs-orwell-infinite-distraction-or-government-oppression/

Richard Blair and Other Stuff

http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/ctc/docs/onlyheir.htm

http://classiclit.about.com/od/nineteeneightyfour/a/aa_1984quotes.htm

Orwell Quotes, Reviews Etc (Crap That English Teachers Like)

http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/George_Orwell/

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/32319.php

http://www.jstor.org/stable/455277

http://contemporarylit.about.com/cs/currentreviews/a/georgeorwell_2.htm

http://www.todayinliterature.com/biography/george.orwell.asp

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/gorwell.htm

The Evolution Of Orwell

Born in 1903 right after the end of the Victorian Era in England, Eric Blair ( later known to the world as George Orwell ) was born into a "lower, upper, middle class family".  By all accounts Blair should have lived a predictable life of security and comfort, while working for the British Empire much as his father did.  What historical, personal and psycho-socio events transformed Blair into Orwell? 

Best known for his later works 1984 and Animal Farm; Orwell lived an eventful and interesting yet short life which both influenced his work as well as transforming him into one of the century's most important literary rebels.  This paper will follow in Orwell's footsteps through the oppressive British public ( private ) school system to the jungles of Burma where he served as an Imperial British Police officer..   This research paper shall revisit his times in the slums of Paris and London, to the trenches of the Spanish Civil War.  Orwell dove in head first and experienced the things he wrote of.  In many ways he is the model of modern investigative journalism as well as historical-political fiction. 

Though Blair/Orwell was a hero of sorts to many, he was also a very complex and  highly flawed man.  Was his chosen life of poverty and discomfort an attempt to expose social injustices by experiencing them first hand ?  Or were they a self indulgent type of martyrdom?  Getting to know the man has proved to be elusive as he was a mystery even to those close to him.  He was a contradiction in many ways. His most famous works are brutal with decidedly unhappy endings, yet he was a quiet and gentle man who loved the simple pleasures.  Did Orwell and others like him shape the times, or did the times shape them? This paper will examine this, as well as, if and how Orwell shaped the future.

Any scholar of Orwell worth their salt can read his life through his fiction.  In Keep The Aspidistra Flying (1936) protagonist Gordon Comstock is a poet who has disappointed his family and chosen to live the life of an impoverished writer, rather than taking the safe and comfortable option in life of using his education and connections to have a position of substance.  Comstock declares war on money and unwittingly creates innocent casualties in his war. 

Orwell, much to the chagrin of his family left a safe post within the British Empire to pursue  contemporarily questionable writing.   Comstock is also the "last of the Comstocks" with parents who have died and his only family a spinster sister.  Orwell was the last male heir of his family and one that showed no signs of marriage for several years.

Burmese Days is an excellent fictional account of British far east imperialism and its fallout.  Orwell was born in India and his father was an opium agent for the British crown.  Following his graduation from Eton, Orwell was an Imperial British police officer. It was a position of power completely unsuitable for a man who would spend most of his career writing against and exposing such oppression.

Animal Farm is a political fairy tale which shows the evolution of utopian political theory and the actual implementation and practice of it when human foibles are added to the mix.  It is also a portrait of Orwell's gentle love for animals.

Sample Intro

Scott Swenson
Eng 103
Prof E. McCormick
Oct 6, 2010

George Orwell is best known for writing Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty-Four  which are arguably two of the most important and well known socio-political novels of the twentieth century.  Both books have decidedly unhappy, bordering on hopeless endings.  Were these books Orwell's warning to the world, because he was above all a humanist teaming with hope?  Or, were they a criticism of mankind's greed, fear and unevolved ignorance; and the quintessential pessimist's condemnation of mankind?
I will show through a careful historical and literary chronology the make up of the man and the author, and why he wrote these two very relevant novels by showing not only what shaped Orwell's frame of mind  and political philosophies,  but also what was going in his world to shape these ideals.

Born into a "lower-upper-middle-class" late Victorian family; Orwell quickly rejected what could have been an almost assured life of comfort, privilege and security and yet pro-actively rejected this lifestyle and immersed himself with the poor masses.  He wrote both as an observer, but also as one of the downtrodden.  He took great risks for his work, and quite literally suffered for it, because it was human suffering he wrote of as well as giving the poor, uneducated and hopeless a dignity never seen before and seldom seen since.

Annotative Bibliography

I was uncertain if this was supposed to be posted or handed in on hard copy.

Annotative Bibliography

Prof. E. Mc Cormick

Oct 4, 2010

Saunders, Loraine   “ The Unsung Artistry of George Orwell: The Novels from Burmese Days to Nineteen-Eighty-Four”

Published by Aldershot,  Hampshire, UK 2008

Critical reviews of Orwell’s fiction.  I shall use these to show the influences of his life’s experiences and how they helped for his fiction.

Hitchens, Christopher   “ Why Orwell Matters”  

Published by Basic Books,  NY, NY 2002

An exploration of how Orwell’s writing was well before his time and still has tremendous contemporary socio-political relevance. 

Meyers, Jeffrey   “Orwell: Wintry Conscience of a Generation”

Published by W.W. Norton & Co  NY, NY 2002

Statements on the ideals of the time and where Orwell fits into them . As well as how he was influential in changing and supporting the budding political philosophies of the early twentieth century.

Griffiths, Sian  “Predictions: 30 Great Minds of the Future”

Essay : 1984 in 2084

Oxford University Press, Oxford NY 1999

30 essays of future predictions from science fiction to political theory.  Where does Orwell fit in among these other writers.  What was Orwell correct about, what may still happen and where was he mistaken.

Lane, Christopher   “Hatred and Civility: The Antisocial Life In Victorian England”

Electronic resource. 

Columbia University Press,  NY, NY  2004

I want to paint a clear picture of the historical back round of Orwell’s life and how it formed his opinions.

www.GerorgeOrwell.org

Website with comprehensive information on Orwell, his work, family, and critical reviews.

The Sunday Times (London)

George Orwell’s Son Speaks for the First Time on his Father.

Interview by John Carey.

A rare and intimate interview into what kind of a man Orwell was by his reclusive adopted son Richard Blair.  This interview shows how very different Orwell was from the publics perception of him based on his work.

The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell. Volume 1

An Age Like This 1920-1940

Published by Harcourt, Brace and World  NY.   First Edition 1966

Rough drafts of his non fiction, plus letters to friends, family and editors.  Great historical perspective through his correspondence.  Also, many of Orwell’s book reviews of other authors at the time.

Orwell, George    1984

Published by Harcourt-Brace  2001 edition

Orwell’s most famous work.  In my opinion almost everything he did throughout his life had some influence on this timeless masterpiece published just before his untimely death.  This novel has brought the terms “Big Brother (is watching you)” and “Orwellian” into the modern vernacular.

Orwell, George   Animal Farm

50th edition.  Published by Harcourt-Brace and Co.  NY and London.   2005

Orwell’s “children’s book” on the evolution and corruption of power.  An historical fairy tale of Marxism gone terribly wrong.