BY GEORGE ORWELL

What does this author’s background bring to this story?

Childhood

• George Orwell was born Eric Arthur

Blair on June 25, 1903, in Bengal,

India.

• His father was an official in the

Opium Department.

• One year after Orwell’s birth, his

mother moved back to England taking George and his

older sister.

• For the next eight years, Orwell would only see his

father for three months in 1907.

• His younger sister was born in England.

Orwell grew up in Henley, Oxfordshire, a well-to-do area of England.

His mother wouldn’t allow him to be friends with the plumber's daughter because the girl was "too common.” Orwell became aware of social class.

Student In 1911, Orwell was accepted to St. Cyprian's, a

preparatory school for the best private schools.

• Owell’s father retired from the Opium Department in 1912. It is the first time Orwell lived with his father in eight years.

• At St. Cyprian’s, Orwell recognized how the strong students belittled, controlled, and terrorized the weaker ones. Those ideas are seen in two of his most renowned novels, Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four.

• His grades at St. Cyprian’s were so impressive, Orwell was accepted to Eton as a King’s Scholar. Eton is one of the nation's most prestigious schools in England. (The scholarship paid for most of his tuition.)

Although he read a great deal of modern writers (Jack London, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw), his grades weren’t very good at Eton.

• In December of 1921, Orwell graduated from Eton. But his grades weren’t high enough to receive a scholarship to Oxford or Cambridge.

• His father refused to pay for any

more of his schooling.

Policeman• Orwell decided to return to

India and become a police

officer.

• Orwell requested a position

in Burma where there was a

great tension between the

British and Indian

populations.

• Orwell disliked the way the British ruled India.

o He was expected to maintain order in a population that detested him.

o But, he sometimes the people he was being paid to protect.

Writer• At 25 years old (1928), he resigned from the Indian

Imperial Police Force and returned to England to become a writer.

• Orwell began "tramping" through London and Paris to learn about the lives of the lower class. He was troubled that a nation as powerful as England could have so much poverty.

• Even though Orwell could have resided comfortably with his parents, he chose to live among the lower classes.

• Not only did he dress in shoddy clothes, he sat on street corners, conversed with tramps, and spent time in the men's shelters around London.

• Orwell worked as a dishwasher in Paris. His experiences were shaped the book, Down and Out in Paris and London.

• He wrote the book under the pseudonym "George Orwell," in case the book was a total failure. (The name was chosen for: George, the patron saint of England, and Orwell, for the name of a river he liked in Suffolk, England.)

• The Spanish Civil War was a duel between two systems of

government: democracy, and fascism.

• This war dragged many nations into it, with volunteers

enlisting and countries sending in aid, arms, and money.

oOne man who enlisted was George Orwell.

• The Spanish Civil War a changed George Orwell. He

returned from Spain with firsthand knowledge of the

horrors of Stalinist Russia.

o He saw his militia outlawed and its commanders

slaughtered, witnessed his friend tortured to the point

of death, and was hunted down by Stalinist forces.

• The Spanish Civil War was the source

of Orwell’s animosity towards

communism and totalitarian states,

especially Russia.

• He believed the political leaders of the

Soviet Union stole the power that

belonged to the people.

• Orwell wrote Animal Farm in 1943 to

illustrate what the Soviet Union was

doing.

• No one wanted to hear his criticism

though.

• Animal Farm wasn’t published until

after the WWII (1945).

IDEALISM

• The attitude of a person who believes

it is possible to live according to very

high standards of behavior and

honesty

• SOMETHING THAT IS

IDEALIZED

• The practice of forming ideals or living

under their influence

• A way of organizing a society that come into prominence in early 20th

century

• Radical form of authoritarian nationalism

• Government ruled by a dictator

o Control lives of people

o People not allowed to disagree with the government

SOCIALISM

• A way of organizing a society

• Major industries are owned and

controlled by the government

• There is no private property

• In theory, the community distributes

resources evenly to the community.

• The theory behind COMMUNISM (It is

an extreme form of socialism.)

• Written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

• Society should not have classes (The aim

was a classless society.)

• Everyone should be equal

• The Soviet Union was the first country to

convert to communism (during WWI)

MARXISM

Identifying the Parallels

The Flag of the Soviet Union

The union of the hammer (workers) and the sickle (peasants)

represented the victorious and enduring revolutionary alliance.

The emblem was topped by a red star that represented the rule

of the Communist Party.

The Flag of Animal Farm

‘The flag was green,’ Snowball explained, ‘to represent

the green fields of England, while the horn and the

hoof signified the future Republic of the Animals which

would arise when the human race had finally been

overthrown.’

Napoleon

Stalin

It is:

•A satire

•An allegorical lesson

•A fable

•A passionate sermon

Why is Animal Farm a classic?

REFERENCES

IMAGES• https://www.google.com/search?q=george+orwell&biw=978&bih=460&source=lnms

&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi67pLflejNAhXB7CYKHe_KDxsQ_AUIBygC#t

bm=isch&q=george+orwell+young

• https://www.google.com/search?q=george+orwell&biw=978&bih=460&source=lnms

&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi67pLflejNAhXB7CYKHe_KDxsQ_AUIBygC#t

bm=isch&q=george+orwell+writing

• https://www.google.com/search?q=george+orwell&biw=978&bih=460&source=lnms

&tbm=isch&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=0ahUKEwi67pLflejNAhXB7CYKHe_KDxsQ_AUIBygC#t

bm=isch&q=animal+farm

• https://www.google.com/search?q=soviet+flag+vs+animal+farm+flag&biw=1242&bi

h=545&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjg9P6wnOjNAhVF5iYKHSJWD7

cQ_AUIBigB&dpr=1.1

RESEARCH• http://orwell.ru/bio/english/al_crick

• https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=idealism

BOOKAnimal Farm, 50th Anniversary Edition

Standard Edition, April 6, 2004

by George Orwell