Early Life

1. Early Life • Birth Place: Bengal, India • Name: Eric Arthur Blair • He had two sisters, one older and one younger • Attended St. Cyprian’s preparatory school

2. George Orwell By: Kim Combatti, Bethany DeStefano, Emily Mullins

3. Later Life • Scholarship to Eton College • Moved to Burma and joined Indian Imperial Police • Lived in poverty while in England • Moved to France and was almost penniless

4. Orwell during the late 1930’s and early 1940’s • Traveled to Spain in 1936 against Francisco Franco’s Nationalists • Was forced to escape for safety of his life from Soviet-backed communists • This experience caused Orwell to become an anti-Stalinist for life • Between 1941 and 1943 Orwell worked on propaganda for BBC

5. George Orwell and His Connections to the Russian Revolution • Orwell was an anarchist in the late 1920’s • Began to think of himself as a socialist in the late 30’s • In 1936 he was told to write about the lives of unemployed miners in northern England which lead to his novel “The Road to Wigan Pier”

6. Reasoning Behind Animal Farm • Orwell discovered that very few people realized that the Soviet revolutionary ideas were towards a totalitarian society • He felt that it was his job as a socialist to expose the “Soviet myth” • A little boy was driving a cart-horse when Orwell realized that if animals were aware of their strength, man would have no power over them, men exploit animals just as the rich exploit the working class  Joseph Stalin Soviet Union Symbol

7. A “Fairy Story” and the Revolution • Orwell wrote Animal Farm to make people “see the Soviet regime for what it really was” • He had a difficult time getting it published because of Britain’s alliance with Stalin • Animal Farm was a success, translated into 39 languages, it was considered a perfect allegory between the revolution on the farm and the Russian Revolution

8. George Orwell Timeline • 1903-Eric Arthur Blair born June 25 in Bengal, India. Son of Richard & Ida Blair. • 1904-Moves to England with his family. • 1917-Attends Eton College • 1922-Joins the Indian Imperial Police in Burma. • 1927-Resigns from the service and returns to England • 1928-Goes to Paris to become a writer. • 1936-June 9, marries Eileen O'Shaughnessy. In December he leaves for Spain, in Barcelona he joins POUM, an independent, non-Stalinist, Marxist group. • 1937-In May, the Communists (Stalinists), attack, imprison, and kill their anarchist (POUM) enemies in Barcelona. He’s on the run to avoid capture by the Communists. He and Eileen escape to France and return to England in July 1937. • 1938-In September, he goes to Morocco with Eileen. • 1939-In March, he returns to England at the same time as the Spanish Republic surrenders to Franco. • 1941-Joins the BBC as a talk producer and broadcaster to India in August. • 1944-Animal Farm is finished in February, but no publisher will accept it because of the British Alliance with Stalin. • 1945-Animal Farm is published by Secker and Warburg in August. Orwell becomes famous overnight. • 1949-June 8, 1949, Secker and Warburg publish Nineteen Eighty-Four. • Admitted hospital in September. October 13, marries Sonia Brownell. • 1950-Suffers a fatal hemorrhage on January 21, 1950 and dies

9. The Many Phases of Animal Farm

10. The End