George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (25 June 1903 – 21 January 1950), known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English novelist and journalist. His work is marked by clarity, intelligence and wit, awareness of social injustice, opposition to totalitarianism, and belief in democratic socialism.

Considered perhaps the 20th century's best chronicler of English culture, Orwell wrote literary criticism, poetry, fiction and polemical journalism. He is best known for the dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) and the allegorical novella Animal Farm (1945), which together have sold more copies than any two books by any other 20th-century author. His book Homage to Catalonia (1938), an account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War, is widely acclaimed, as are his numerous essays on politics, literature, language and culture. In 2008, The Times ranked him second on a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

Orwell's work continues to influence popular and political culture, and the term Orwellian—descriptive of totalitarian or authoritarian social practices—has entered the vernacular with several of his neologisms, such as doublethink, thought crime, Big Brother and thought police.

All political thinking for years past has been vitiated in the same way. People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome. 

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac. 

If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.

All the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.

• " Political language - and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists - is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. "

• " Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past. "

• " If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. "

• " We sleep safe in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm. "

• " Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. "

• " War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. "

Political background of animal farm

Animal Farm was first published in 1945 as a political allegory of the Russian Revolution, particularly directed at Stalin's Russia.As a result of the pro-Russian atmosphere, Orwell had a hard time finding a publisher for Animal Farm. Although Orwell aims his satire at totalitarianism in all of its guises, those being communist, fascist and capitalist, " Animal Farm" owes its structure largely to the events of the Russian Revolution as they unfolded between 1917 and 1944, when Orwell was writting the novel. Much of what happens symbolically parellels specific developments int he history of Russian communism, and several of the animal characters are based on real participants in the Russian Revolution. Due to the universal relevance of the novel's themes,the reader does not need to possess an encyclopedic knowledge of Marxist Leninism or Russian history in order to appreciate Orwell's satire of them. An acquaintance with certain facts from Russia's past, however, serves as useful in a deeper, more profound understanding of his critisism. Animal Farm most definetely resembles the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin, it is more meaningfully an anatomy of all political revolutions, where the revolutionary ideals of justice, equality, and fraternity shatter in the event. Orwell paints a grim picture of the political 20th century, a time he believed marked the end of the very concept of human freedom. Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written, directly or indirectly, against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism as I understand it." -- George Orwell, "Why I Write" To the preface of the Ukrainian edition he wrote:

"Nothing has contributed so much to the corruption of the original idea of Socialism as the belief that Russia is a Socialist country and that every act of its rulers must be excused, if not imitated. And so for the past ten years I have been convinced that the destruction of the socialist myth was essential if we wanted a revival of the socialist movement."

He made it clear that this was the purpose of his writing of Animal Farm in his Preface to the Ukrainian edition. He also condemns Stalin for his ‘barbaric and undemocratic methods’’ and in a country in which everyone was meant to be equal ‘’ was struck by clear sign of its transformation into hierarchal society.’’ It was to draw attention to these two main points that he wrote Animal Farm.

Communism, which appears in the novel as Animalism was based on the ideas of Karl Marx, a German philosopher. He believed that workers or the proletariat did not enjoy the rewards of their labour and predicted that they would one day turn against their employers and create equality. These ideas became part of the Communist Manifesto and they provided the basis for Major’s speech.

The Tsar’s rule was seen as corrupt and oppressive and the revolution of 1017 bought the communists, under Lenin to power.

The Communists won the Civil war aided by Trotsky’s leadership of the Red Army- a clear parallel is made with Orwell’s reference to Jones’s invasion and the ‘Battle of the Cowshed.’ The animals win the battle as a result of Snowball’s brilliant planning.

Lenin’s death resulted in the struggle for power between Trotsky and Stalin, reflected in the book in the disagreements between Snowball and Napoleon. Stalin eventually seized power and Trotsky was exiled in 1924, jut like Snowball was chased off the farm.

Daily life in the Soviet Union was harsh but this deteriorated further when Stalin began to hurt down anyone who could possibly challenge his authority. Here, we clearly see the link with Napoleon who suppressed those who disagreed with him. His executions are directly associated with Stalin’s ‘’purges.’’

The seven commandments are gradually destroyed or corrupted as the novel progresses. This represents the gradual perversion of Marx’s original socialist ideas by Stalin.

Napoleon – Stalin

Snowball – Trotsky

Mr Jones – Tsar (opposing communism)

Squealer – Propagandist.