Animal Farm

1. Animal Farm Author Notes

2. The belief that power corrupts was a solid force in the creation of George Orwell’s famous controversial novel Animal Farm.

3. Facts about George Orwell • Born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Bengal, India. • Son of British colonial civil servant • Educated at Eton in England, then left for Burma to join the Indian Imperial Police for five years • In Burma, witnessed corruption in the form of imperialism (a system of government that extends its rule over foreign territories)

4. In 1936, Orwell joined the Spanish Civil War. • He later fled after experiencing the horrors of the war, including the distorted truth of propaganda (the spreading of ideas or information to further or damage a cause). • Orwell believed that “official war-propaganda, with its disgusting hypocrisy and self-righteousness, always tends to make thinking people sympathize with the enemy” (Orwell, “Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War”). • In other words, propaganda has the ability to make even the most intelligent people believe that something is right when it is completely wrong. • Orwell’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War reinforced his belief that power corrupts.

5. Orwell began writing Animal Farm in 1943. • The novel exposed the notion that power was corrupt, and thus, revolutions were futile (useless). • The novel was written as an allegory in which animals and plot details closely portray historical figures and events that resemble the 1917 Russian Revolution.