1984 George Orwell summary, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica 1984 George Orwell summary e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! George Orwell BIOGRAPHY George Orwell is the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair, born in India in 1903 where his father was a civil servant with the British Raj. Orwell’s adoption of this new name was part of an act of separation from his relatively privileged background to become a literary representative of the lower classes. In 1904 Orwell left India with his mother and, as a child, attended a series of reputable public schools in England, including Eton which he left in 1921. He then joined the Indian Imperial Police, attracted by the idea of travel and adventure and he spent five years in Burma before resigning, having realised he was part of a system he was fundamentally opposed to; that of imperialism and social exploitation. He had also made the decision to become a writer and he headed off to Paris, where he stayed in a working-class district and worked in a hotel washing dishes while attempting his first articles and short stories. Orwell returned to England in 1929 and lived for a short while as a tramp in London, experiencing the hardships and rough treatment of the poor. He consequently wrote “Down and Out in Paris and London” (1933), a reportage of these experiences, using his pseudonym for the first time. Following this, he worked as a teacher, journalist and bookshop assistant and completed two novels: “A Clergyman’s Daughter” (1935) and “Keep the Aspidistra Flying” (1936). His next work was commissioned by the Left Book Club who wanted an examination of the conditions of poverty in the North of England. Orwell integrated himself with miners, the unemployed and the oppressed and his graphic account was published in “The Road to Wigan Pier” (1937) in which he also criticised English socialism as being ineffectual, subject to class prejudice and lacking linguistic clarity, an issue he would later return to in essays such as “Politics and the English Language” (1946).Towards the end of 1936 Orwell travelled to Spain to support the Republicans in the Spanish Civil War. “Homage to Catalonia” (1938) is his personal report and commentary on the war. After his experiences in Spain, Orwell became an adamant anti-Stalinist. He did, however, continue to be a democratic socialist for the rest of his life and a supporter, although not without some criticism, of the Labour Party. Orwell spent the winter of 1938 recovering from tuberculosis in Morocco where he wrote “Coming up for Air” (1939). He was willing to serve when World War II broke out but was declared unfit and worked instead for the BBC Asian Service and the Home Guard. In 1943 he became literary editor of Tribune and began writing his highly successful satirical fable, “Animal Farm” (1945), based on Stalin’s betrayal of the Russian Revolution. He became war correspondent for “The Observer” in 1945. Orwell spent 1946 living on the remote island of Jura in Scotland, where he started his celebrated dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty- Four” (1949). However, the Scottish climate exacerbated his tubercular condition and he died on 21st January 1950 in London, aged 46. CONTEXT 1984 was published in 1949, not long after Joseph Stalin’s great purge of the 1930s. Stalin was the leader of the communist party in the soviet union and under Stalin’s communism the state seized all the private property to become communal but this didn’t give the working class more power. Stalin became a dictator, his totalitarian government eliminated all opposition to his rule, secret police watched the citizens and used torture tactics to get false confessions from his enemies. The great purge made millions of people disappear since the prison camps are executed, their public records were destroyed. During the Spanish civil war, Stalin funded the socialist republican government in its battle against the fascist nationalists. Stalin accused many of his allies on the republican side of treason and the resulting in fighting on the republican side, created even more bloodshed. World War Two was another example of the destructive power of the kind of totalitarianism 1984 represents. Adolf Hitler’s nazi party put people in concentration camps that have them killed the expansionist axis powers fought against the allies, although the allies ultimately won. History has forgotten many of the names of the victims of the holocaust, they became and were actually called non-persons, their histories erased, the late 1940s and 1950s saw attention paid to uncovering facts the nazis tried to hide and Orwell’s story is a cautionary reminder to readers of the danger of a regime that refuses to take responsibility for its actions. Orwell was a supporter of socialism and was determined to create better living conditions for the working poor or was fervently anti-totalitarian and staid an anti Stalinist right up to and during the writing of 1984. He continued to believe that a form of socialism, called ethical socialism, offered a fairer society. The political system in the novel 1984, is called Ingsoc, short for English socialism; but Orwell named the political system that because he saw England as just as vulnerable to totalitarianism as any other country. 1984 is an anti totalitarian novel, not an anti socialist one. Now 1984 made an immediate impression on its early readers and was considered a novel of political prophecy: its rise of technology and an increasingly divided and partisan media is still relevant in the 21st century, as it was when it was first published. Several words from 1984 have entered the english-speaking lexicon: big brother, newspeak, thought police, doublethink. CHARACTERS There are a key number of characters in 1984. Winston Smith He is the protagonist, a 39 year old member of the outer party, working for the ministry of truth, he remembers as a child living in London in the days before the revolution. His longing for truth and decency causes him to hate the party and he is secretly rebelling by writing in a diary. Winston repels further by engaging in a sexual relationship with Julia and trying to join the counter- revolutionary movement known as the brotherhood. Winston believes that eventually his rebellion will be uncovered and he will be vaporised. Big brother It is the figurehead of the party and the supreme leader who rules Oceania. People are not expected to just follow him, but love him and his face is everywhere including on poster, coins and the ever-present tele screen. It is highly possible the big brother is a symbol and not an actual person, as long as the party maintains control, big brother will never die. O’ Brien He is a prominent member of the inner party, Winston instinctively admires and feels drawn to O’Brien, who’s intelligent and cunning. Winston is convinced that O’Brien secretly hates the party. Julia She is first introduced as the dark-haired girl. She works in the fiction departments of the ministry of truth. Only 26, Julia has no memories of anything prior to the 1960s: she was a member of the youth league and the junior anti-sex league and only makes pretence of being a good party member. She despises the party and hides her contempt and her rule breaking activities are always cautious. She enjoys what pleasure she can without being caught, she is opportunistic and proactive. She’s not interested in politics and is untroubled by the party’s lives, Julia lives in the now and does not worry about the future. Emmanuel Goldstein He is an early leader of big brother’s revolution who broke off when he felt it had betrayed his idealistic goal. The party uses Goldstein’s face to convince people that there is a revolutionary group, opposing big brother. Because the party consistently lies to the people, it’s even possible that Goldstein doesn’t and never did exist. Mr. Charrington He is a frail man of about sixty and the owner of an antique shop. He’s a prole and friendly, soft- spoken and unassuming, Winston seems to like him as soon as they meet and he takes an interest in useless items that have a simple beauty about them. He keeps a room above his shop as it would have looked before the revolution. His clothes are simple, his hair is white and he wears spectacles and speaks in a cockney accent. He has an air of intellect and is better educated than many members of the English working class but there is more to Mr. Charrington’s than Winston notices at first: he’s a member of thought police. SYMBOLS There are a number of key symbols in 1984. Emmanuel Goldstein It’s likely Emmanuel Goldstein doesn’t even exist and symbolise the power of groupthink. The party needs to compare itself to someone, something a scapegoat in order to maintain it’s