George Orwell
Economical Background
Education
Social Background
Religious Background
He famously described his family as “lower-upper-middle class”, as he truly saw they didn't fit in the social-economical standards pre-put onto them.
Political Background
Influences
Experiences
General information
Eric Arthur Blair or as we know it George Orwell, was born in eastern India on June 25, 1903, the son of a British colonial civil servant. He was educated in England and entered the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, which was then a British colony, after leaving Eton. In 1927, he resigned and decided to pursue a career as a journalist and writer. He moved to Paris in 1928, where his lack of success as a writer caused him to work in a number of low-paying jobs. In 1933, he wrote his first book, 'Down and Out in Paris and London,' which detailed his experiences. Shortly before the book's publication, he assumed the name George Orwell. In 1934, he published his first book, 'Burmese Days.'
Regarding religion, George Orwell has been labeled as an agnostic, an individual who insists that nothing about God's life or nature is known or can be known. or even a Christian atheist, a branch of Christianity that denies Christianity's theistic assertions and instead bases its values and rituals on Jesus' life and/or teachings. because of his views on faith. :
Sources
Many of George Orwell's texts is influenced by his own life experiences, more or less explicitly. The emphasis of this research would be on three forces, each of which contributes to a major theme in Orwell's work. Orwell's growing distrust of totalitarianism and political authority was fueled by the rise to power of dictators such as Adolf Hitler in Germany and Joseph Stalin in the Soviet Union. Orwell dedicated his attention to writing political books, beginning with Animal Farm in 1945 and ending with 1984 in 1949. It is clear from the close links between incidents in Orwell's life and key themes in 1984 that Orwell drew a lot of influence from his surroundings. As a result, 1984 can be seen as a kind of guided autobiography, in which George Orwell narrated his childhood in order to prove his political points and rail against totalitarianism.
NATALIA DE LA HOZ, SANTIAGO TOLOSA
Bloomsbury. (2016) “George Orwell and Religion” Retrieved from: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/george-orwell-and-religion-9781472530738/
BBC. (2014) “George Orwell” Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/orwell_george.shtml
Secino. B (2017) “The Influences of George Orwell's 1984” Retrieved from: https://londonhuawiki.wpi.edu/index.php/The_Influences_of_George_Orwell%27s_1984#The_Influences_of_1984
Sparknotes (2020) ”1984” Retrieved from: https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/1984/context/
He studied at places such as:
Eton College
Wellington College
St Cyprians School
He mostly felt oppressed by the unfair control that the schools he attended to exercised over their students’ lives.
He felt uneasy and sick when having to enforce the law when being a police officer, having to retire from it going back to England
Most of his politics ruled around the equality of people, and how these would make the world "better", but as he later re-instates in his book Animal Farm, we see that true equality for everyone is unachievable, even by the greatest means
He never fit it alongside the other people, and society in general, being a sort of "Outskate" of society.
His retirement from policeman ship lead him to become a writer, a profession in which he could freely express his ideology passed onto him because of his social background
He was timid as a child and lacked self-confidence. He'd had bronchitis his whole life. Orwell was sent to a private preparatory school in Sussex, England, when he was eight years old. His impressions there, he later said, shaped his opinions on the English class system. He attended two independent high schools on scholarship: Wellington for one year and Eton for four and a half years.
World Biography (2020) “George Orwell Biography” Retrieved from: https://www.notablebiographies.com/Ni-Pe/Orwell-George.html#:~:text=George%20Orwell%20was%20born%20Eric,in%20the%20Indian%20Civil%20Service.&text=As%20a%20child%2C%20Orwell%20was%20shy%20and%20lacked%20self%2Dconfidence.
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). George Orwell. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Orwell.
His work is characterized by lucid prose, biting social criticism, opposition to totalitarianism, and outspoken support of democratic socialism.
Orwell attended Eton College. Because literature was not an accepted subject for boys at the time, Orwell studied the master writers and began to develop his own writing style. At Eton, he came into contact with liberalist and socialist ideals, and it was here that his initial political views were formed.