Eric Arthur Blair popularly known as George Orwell is one of the prominent satirist of English literature. He was born in Mothihari in India in 1903 to Scottish parents. As a child, Orwell believed that he was born to be a serious writer. He wrote his first poem at the age of five. At the age of eleven, he wrote and published a poem in patriotic vein.
When Orwell was eight years old, he was sent to a preparatory school in the south coast. Atkins has, in his study of Orwell, noted that, “His experiences at this school marked him for his life and he escaped their influence. There were few joys in his school days and he left with what can only be called a deliberately inculcated sense of failure”.
In 1917, he turned 14 and joined Eaton. As he has made only fleeting references to this period we do not know much about his life and activities at Eaton. He has said that he was relatively happy there. However, we can be sure that he busied himself with the study of classics. He also contributed to the various periodicals of the college.
After his education, he joined the police force though he detested authority. He served in the Indian Imperial Police force at Burma from 1922 to 1927.
In 1927, he resigned his job and went to France. There he lived for two years before returning to England. Atkins notes “Even at that youthful age his appearance revealed both innate sincerity of the man and the intense struggle of. However, he had resolved to take writing seriously. In England, he worked as a private tutor, schoolteacher, and bookshop assistant for a living for some time. He also wrote for the periodicals.
“Down and out in Paris and London” an account of is personal search for poverty appeared in 1933. Though the picture of poverty he presents in it is heart rending, never does he attempt to sensationalise it. Next to it came the “Burmese Days’ (1934), his first novel which was inspired by his experiences in Burma. “ Keep the Aspidistra Flying” appeared in 1936. The theme of the novel is lack of money and the resultant poverty. He makes the point that one can never imagine a descent life without money.
In the same year, Victor Gollanz commissioned him to visit Lancashire and Yorkshire where poverty was rampant. “The Road to Wigan Pier” that appeared in 1937 provides a graphic account of poetry he witnessed there.
From 1937 to the end of his life in 1950, he was engaged in political debates. He was of the view that an honest writer could never think of relinquishing his freedom and subject himself to the party discipline.
During the Second World War Orwell worked for the BBC Eastern service from 1941 to 1943. He also wrote for the Observer and the Manchester Evening News. By the time the war came to an end, Orwell had become famous and was earning so much of money .but his health had been worsening for some time.” Animal Farm”, the book that won him worldwide acclaim came out in 1945. “Nineteen Eighty Four” hailed as the “most brilliant satires on totalitarian and the power hungry ever written” appeared in 1949.Soon after the publication on 23 January 1950 he suffered a haemorrhage and died. It has been said that Orwell was a political writer. His works deal directly or indirectly with politics.
Atkins observes, “Orwell’s contribution to modern political thought was the introduction of the despised values which used to be called truth”. The Marxists were concerned with the strategies to adopt to establish a dictatorship of the proletariat. To them truth and liberty were mere words devoid of any meaning. They often went to the extent of questioning the very validity of the concepts such as truth and liberty. Orwell viewed it as a dangerous trend and fought it tooth and nail.
Orwell felt that the zeal for intellectual freedom was declining. The freedoms people enjoy depend on the public opinion. People can influence the decisions and the policies of the government by airing their views without fear. If the public fails in this the government will misuse its power .He believed that it is the duty if the intellectuals to analyse he policies of the governments and inform the public. Orwell felt that with the advent of Marxism intellectuals forsook their duty paving the way for tyrannical regimes. He was horrified by the silence of the Western liberal intellectuals during the trial and purges in Moscow during the reign of Stalin.
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