About the author
The author is Eric Arthur Blair, alias George Orwell. According to Woodcock, G. (2022) Orwell is an English novelist, essayist, and critic, famous for his novels “Animal Farm” and “Nineteen Eighty-Four”.
Orwell was born in 1903, in India. However, he moved back to England with his mother and sister as an infant, and later attended St Cyprian School there. In school, receiving harsh treatment from rich and privileged young children, Orwell developed his persona as a rebellious and “under-privileged” student. Surprisingly, he did not do well academically, although he did read voraciously. (Orwell, 1949, p. V)
Due to his lack of academic achievements, Orwell could not pursue Oxbridge education, so he decided to join the Indian Civil Service in 1921. There he developed his inspiration for writing and motivation to succeed as an author because he did not want to devote his life to public service. During his service, he was an enforcer of Britain’s imperial rule where he realized that the Burmese were ruled against their own free will by the British. (Woodcock, 2022) This experience sparked his lifelong uneasiness with authority. (Orwell, 1949, p. VI)
During the bloody Spanish Civil War, some intellectuals followed the events of the Civil War and developed political-philosophical battles amidst physical warfare. George Orwell was no different – he was committed to fighting fascism in Spain, and because of that the communists had begun to keep an eye on Orwell. (Orwell, 1949, p. VII) However, after fighting communists who were trying to suppress their political enemies, he was forced to flee the country. (Woodcock, 2022) After the war, Orwell became critical of the Stalinist regime, equating its totalitarianism with that of the fascists across Europe. Leftist publications refused to publish his essays and account of the Spanish Civil War, so he went to a smaller publication house “Secker and Warburg”. (Orwell, 1949, p. VII)…
