Animal Farm And 1984 example essay topic

Goerge Orwell once remarked that "Dickens is one of those writers who are well worth stealing" (Oldsey and Browne, 19). The light in which Orwell praises Dicken's work with admiration and recognition is the same one he shines in today. Orwell, whose influential voice still echoes in our minds recognized the truth and the conflict within man. He acknowlegded the ugly facts, the harsh reality; a political writer who maybe even predicted why wars will last until the end of time. Goerge Orwell; his soul reflects the mirror image of a humanist, his works reflect his "ruling passion which was the fear and hatred of totalitarianism" (Oldsey and Browne, 28). This fact, this problem that man create within society drove, pumped and nurtured Orwell's heart to write well, but to write truthfully, with freedom of speech, and no concsience to bear it all with world famous works such as Animal Farm and 1984.

Orwell was not afraid to stand for what he stood: " the dignity of man, the inviolability of the human spirit, and each man's right to spiritual privacy" (Authors 1). Gardner tells the story of an extraordinary child who realized many true simplicities about life, as he once blurted, "you are noticed more if you stand on your head than if you are the right way up". Only eleven years before that on June 25, 1903 Eric Arthur Blair was a blessing to Ida Mabel Limousin and Richard Walmsley Blair in Moti hari, Bengal, India. Eric's father worked as an agent in the Department of the Indian Civil Service, and his mother was the daughter of a French tradesman. Gardner claims she was more lively, less conventional, and eighteen years younger than her husband. He also had two sisters, one five years older, and the other five years younger his age.

However, they never seemed to be very close to them and so he grew up in a "certain degree of isolation". Eric cannot describe his childhood at home, however, as spinster or gray. Even though they did not have much and were not very wealthy, he lived fairly comfortable because they were the typical middle-class English family. 1907, at the age of eight, Eric and his family moved back to England.

At this time, Eric started going to a small school, which was operated by a Angelic an convent. He attended there for five years until 1916. His intelligence won him two scholarships; one to Wellington, which was associated with the army, and one to Eton, the most famous public school in Britain. He ranked fourteenth in the 1916 Election at Eton, and was accepted one month before his fourteenth birthday. One of his most famous essays contributes to his life at Eton, Such, Such Were the Joys. He mainly attacks the school due to the strict regimen they led.

Beatings were not out of the ordinary, and such harsh memories influenced his life and his future opinions, rightly so. Eric, only a defensless child was punished's everly for being a chronic bed-wetter, a condition he could do nothing about. The education he received at Eton was dull because it mostly consisted of classical languages. This did not, whatsoever, stir his full potential. Already at the age of six he had known that he would be, or must be a writer as he states in Why I Write.

In order to do that he would have to read literature, but Eton's curriculum saw that as absurd (1-9). He began reading outside of this curriculum and discovered many writers including Shaw and Butler who influenced him immensely (Authors 5). Although, he did not appreciate his education or the life at Eton, his letters home do not reveal any of the bitterness that his famous works do. He had his first crush on Jacinth a Bud dicom, and something that was a normal occurence in his situation, he even confessed having a crush on a boy. At the age of eighteen, December 1921 he finally closed the Eton chapter in his life and turned the next page, which was Burma (Gardner 9). Biography tells about same month of leaving Eton, his parents moved to Southwold, a quiet resort town.

His poor school performance, and the fatherly advice to follow into the family footsteps were two big factors towards becoming a policeman in Burma. He spent the next five years from 1922-1927 in the service of the British government. When he came home on leave in 1927, he decided that his last days were counted as a civil servant in Burma. "He was supporting a political system he could no longer believe". He simply wanted to "escape from... every form of man's man", as he admits in The Road to Wigan Pier (1937). He decided to settle down in London in Portobello Road at the age of twenty-four.

There he finally decided to pursue his life long dream and teach himself how to write. His determination was impressive; he would occupy that room for weeks, ... ". thawing his hands over a candle". During the period of 1927-1933 he lived in complete poverty depriving himself of every luxury. His reasoning might seem odd but he simply detested the middle-class he was born into. There he only saw repulsion and injustice. He considered the poor to be the victims of it all and he simply wanted to live among them and experience it all.

A later essay later in How the Poor Die (1946) is one of the only experiences that survive describing his life among the poor. After London, he lived in Paris for a while and had accepted a job as a dishwasher. In 1933 he accomplished his works Down and Out in Paris and London vowing that "nearly all the incidents had actually happened" (Wigan Pier, 249). He wished to sort ouf play anonymity by conveniently changing his name in case Down and Out in Paris and London was not a success (Biography 2-4).

He took up the name George according to St. Goerge who was known for fighting with dragons. This was a parallel to his own feelings as he wrote against and fought with the dragons of the world. Orwell came from a small river in Suffolk where he once lived, so the symbolism contains the return to his land, home, or maybe just his heart (Authors 6). During the lucky year of 1936 Orwell met Eileen O'Shaughnessy and got married. They were ideal for each other, sharing many of the same beliefs, and seemed to have led a perfect marriage (Biography 6). During his stay in London he had seen and lived first hand through much of the poverty to get a better grip on it.

In 1936 he began a survey on unemployment in England researching the effects it had on the country and its people. Much of this information he put the use in his book The Road to Wigan Pier, which was completed in 1937 (Authors 6). During this time, Spain was struggling in its conflict between the communist and the socialist Republic Franco's Fascist military rebellion. Orwell was thrown off by the atmosphere in Spain as he recognized something in Spain he could only dream of in England; there was equality. This inspired him to enlist in the militia of the POUR. This group was brutally suppressed by Stalin's agents and later on even accused of imitating radical Socialists like the Trotskyite militia force.

However, Spain plays another part that influences Orwell for the rest of his life, for he experiences worthwhile emotions that some things are worth fighting for. He learns the meaning of "comradeship" and seeks new hope that "socialism in action is a human possibility... ". Despite this hopeful impression in Spain, Catalonia (1938) shows that Orwell does realize, as well, that human nature is a strong force when it comes to seeking "power over others" (Biography 4).

His stay in Spain leaves him lucky to have escaped with his wife and a bad wound in the throat, a result from fighting in the front lines (Authors 7). As the outbreak of World War II dooms on Europe in the year of 1939 Orwell decided to be as supportive as he can, and throw himself into another cause. He devotes his time to writing on behalf of the war-effort and also joins the British Broadcast in 1941. As if this contribution is not enough, Orwell decides to give up his services to the Home Guard in England, naturally, as a sergeant. 1943 plays a major role in his career as he successfully turns his political writings into literary art.

The pressures of the times had affected Orwell like everyone else, but he refused to be held down. Fully aware of what was going on, he put a little twist into creative writing, instead of confronting the world directly. The results create a timeless piece, full of satire about the rise of totalitarianism in Russia, known today as Animal Farm. Shortly after, his personal life takes a colorful turn as he and his wife adopt a son (Gardner 30).

However, even the brightest flower dies someday, and the saints leave this earth slowly but surely. His wife's soul could have been described just like that as she, among other deeds, gave up part of her wartime food to feed helpless children (Authors 7). Due to results of a minor operation she leaves Orwell in 1945 to continue the struggle on his own (Gardner 30). Out of this depriving post-war period came the works of 1984 and "was written in the state of depression and pessimism occasioned by the unexpected death of his wife and by his own poor health.

By this time Orwell learned that he was suffering from turbecolosis, so in order to save his life he needed rest. Orwell found that serenity off the coast of western Scotland on the island of Jura, with his sister, his son, and his new wife Sonia Brownell. In the following years of long, quiet days Orwell finished 1984 (Authors 7-8). A letter two years before had described what sort of world he feared, in terms precisely monitory to 1984: "a world of two or three great superstates which are unable to conquer one another" (Gardner 110).

Authors says essentially all of his life and work was a preparation for writing this book, which along with Animal Farm would make him world famous. 1984 leads to what Orwell had once called "the central question... how to prevent power from being abused", while Animal Farm is rather the study and history of this complex subject (7-8). Gardner finds it hard to understand how Animal Farm could have been described as " a good-natured satire on dictatorship". This animal fable afforded Orwell a powerful hand in which to express "human decency".

In a way it seems appropriate for animals to base a society on this notion and every time they fail, even the reader feels defensless. Enriched with morals, and based on satire the story derives on Orwell's views with such straightforwardness. The idea of realistic animals as a use for allegorical purposes empowers the story to be very emotional, indeed and certainly the reason why it is known as "a fairy story told by a great lover of liberty and a great lover of animals" (99-100). The story takes place on a farm somewhere in England. It is told by an all-knowing narrator in third person.

Old Major, the oldest pig on the farm kicks off the action by calling all animals to a secret meeting. He confides his dream of a revolution against the the cruel Mr. Jones, and as he dies three days later, his last impression gives the more intelligent animals a new lookout on life. The pigs are considered the most intelligent, three who specifically stand out: Napoleon, Snowball, and Squealer come up with a theory called Animalism. So, the rebellion starts one particular night when Mr. Jones forgets to feed the animals and comes home bewilder ly drunk. They break out the barn in to the house where all the food is stored. As they attack him, and fall all over him, they also succeed in driving him off the farm.

The animals, with great pleasure, destroy whips, nose rings, reins, and all weapons used to suppress them. With this mission accomplished and the beginning of a new order they decide on the seven commandments, as well. In short terms, those are easily summarized in to "Four legs good, two legs bad". Next, with good intentions still in mind, the animals make out to build a windmill.

However, as time passes the working hours go up, while the food rations decline. This windmill contains strong symbolism because it sets the example of the Russian industry, which was built by the working class. The common animals do not have enough food, but oddly enough the pigs seem to be getting fatter. Eventually, the pigs start bending the commandments to their own will, as more and more rules are being broken.

Napoloen decides to deepen his relationships with the neighbouring farms, and even invites them over to the farm one night. Orwell could not have broken down the fundamentals any better, for as they celebrate the efficiency of the farm, where the animals work hard with a minimum of food, the commoners look through the window and one can no longer distinguish between man and animal (Work 1-2). The pigs fit perfectly in to this satire of the Russian Revolution because Orwell gives them the part of the communist party loyalists and the friends of Stalin. The pigs, unlike all the common animals, live in luxury at the sake of the society they help to control. A repeated theory in 1984 as well, Orwell refers to Karl Marx's "utopian" society with disagreement. as he exposes the inequality and ugly truth about communism.

The "utopian" society is obviously not a reality in Orwell's world. He even emphasises at the end, "Somehow even though the farm had grown richer without making the animals themselves rich except, of course, the pigs and the dogs". The dogs actually represent the bodyguards of Stalin in the book. Although they don't speak, their strenght and brutality empowers their position as animals not to be reckoned with.

The role of the dogs begins the cruelty of evil force Napoleon uses to maintain his power on the farm. Later on, the dogs do even worse things as they are instructed to kill animals labeled "disloyal". It truly reinforces the idea of the unimaginable, yet very true human weakness. World War II and Animal Farm by example of Russia particulary show us that there always will be followers loyal to any politician considered a leader. Minor characters like Mollie, who is mostly opposed by Napoleons rule is treated harshly and lowly because she is considered a traitor. Considerably, Orwell tells us that people who oppose change do exist, and people who want to fight it, as well.

Basically, not all animals are the same and Marx's theory on notions of perfection are once again being criticized. Perfect is not perfect for everyone, and it certainly does not work for everyone (Work 3-9). Obviously, the extent of political factors is very present in the writings of Animal Farm, but a preface written three years later after the completion reveals yet another reason: "to destroy Westerners' illusions about the Soviet Union... by exposing the falsity of claims that the Soviet Union was a socialist and therefore progressive society" (S myer 11). Work claims that as much Orwell believed in socialism, he knew that it could never be succesfully adopted due to the perfect example he sets with Napoleon: the uncontrollable sins of humans, the neverending greed, and the enormous hunger for power. Just like Stalin, Napoleon was a good leader in the beginning. Yet, as the course of nature follows they discard the original idea of socialism, grant themselves all power and live in luxury without any regard to the suffering of the lower classes (4).

"The claim that a perfect society is inevitable under socialism is, Orwell asserts, a straw man set up to be knocked down by socialism's enemies on the right" (Smiler 12). The follow up to this piece of political art is included in 1984. The condition of his health in the last year contributed much to 1984, as well as, his personal tragedies, but the course never wandered of its path by dealing with the preoccupations he had with human liberty, human spirit, and the exercise of power. One might call Animal Farm the "beast fable" as compared to 1984 the "anti-Utopia". He finished this second contribution to the collection of timeless literature in January 1949, with a few months of happiness left, as he died on the day of January 21, 1950.

Essentially, Orwell leaves behind historical works imprinted with his beliefs "in the human race and in the necessity of its survival in freedom" (Authors 8).