George Orwell - summary, Sintesi del corso di Inglese

Scarica George Orwell - summary e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! GEORGE ORWELL LIFE George Orwell, pseudonym of Eric Arthur Blair, was born in 1903 in India, where his father worked as an officer of the British Empire. As a child he moved to spend his childhood in England with his mother and two sisters. Orwell went to St Cyprian's College in Eastbourne and later he went to the prestigious Eton College. The years spent in St Cyprian were very unhappy for the writer. He hated the lack of privacy, the humiliating punishments, the pressure to conform to the values of the English tradition. At Eton began to cultivate his personality and intellectual interests. After school, Orwell decided not to go to university and returned to India. Here he joined the Imperial Police in Burma and remained there from 1922 to 1927, when he decided to resign because of his anti-imperialist ideas. Back in London he started a social experiment: wearing second-hand clothes, living in the most infamous areas of London he directly experienced poverty and learned how institutions worked for the poor. In 1928 he went to Paris to work as a writer, but when he ran out of money, he was forced to accept very menial jobs. In 1933 Orwell wrote several books in which he criticized English provincial life and soon developed an interest in socialism and in the living conditions of the working classes. In December 1936 Orwell went to Spain to participate in the Spanish Civil War; in Barcelona he joined the Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) against the dictator Francisco Franco. While fighting on the Aragones front, he was wounded and forced to return to England. In 1941 Orwell began working for the BBC, for which he broadcast cultural and political programmes for India; he later became editor for the Tribune, a newspaper of socialist extraction, for which he also wrote numerous articles. At the same time he wrote one of his most important works, the allegorical novel Animal Farm. Orwell had been suffering from tuberculosis for several years and during this time his health began to decline. He died in 1950 a few weeks after the publication of his most famous work, Nineteen Eighty-Four. George Orwell was a social, political observer of the strenghts and the weaknesses of society in an objective way. He is on the side of the poor that are victims of injustices and discriminations, so he hopes that human relationships could be based on tolerance, brotherhood, solidarity and friendship (he has a great sense of moral awareness). He was against totalitarian regimes, in fact, with his works he tries to make people aware of all the negative consequences of an oppressive power such as the lack of freedom, the social uniformity, the repression of divergent thoughts and actions. So he becomes didactic and his clear writing lets him spread clear messages without misunderstandings. ANIMAL FARM Animal farm is an animal fable, a dystopian novel, a satire of the events that happened in Russia between 1914 and 1943. The Russian revolution let Stalin establish a dictature. In 1939 Stalin signed a non-aggression pact with Hitler, which enabled the Germans to take over Poland and Czechoslovakia. Orwell's indignant reaction to these events caused him to write Animal Farm. PLOT The book is about a group of animals, capable of speech and reason, who live and work in a farm oppressed by their master, Mr Jones. One day they are summoned by an old pig, Old Major, who dreams to create a better society and invites them to rebel against the owner of the farm. The animals accept, send away Mr Jones and organize a government, where everyone works together. Pigs, which are the smartest animals, gradually take over the other animals. It seems that they work for the common good, but in reality they only think about increasing their power. At first the farm animals were guided by seven commandments based on the principle of equality, but then these commandments are modified by pigs, led by Napoleon and Snowball, who manage to establish a dictatorial regime similar to that of humans. Finally, only one commandment remains: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others, to indicate the presence of a new dictatorship. Soon Napoleon and Snowball come into conflict and Napoleon manages to drive Snowball away; in addition, he orders his dogs to attack and kill anyone who challenges his authority. At the end of the novel we see pigs behaving like humans, while other animals observe them and reflect on the fact that there is no distinction between humans and pigs. THEMES AND CHARACTERS In the story every animal represents real people. Old Major stands for a mixture of Marx and Lenin, Farmer Jones is Czar Nicolas II and Orwell describes him as a drunk farmer who doesn't care about his animals and his farm and he represents the corruption of the government that will push the people to revolution. Snowball represents Trotsky and his bravery is an example to the other animals, Napoleon is Stalin that uses terror and force to maintain his power over the animals. Among other animals there is Boxer, a horse exploited by pigs for its enormous physical strength. Boxer is a loyal animal symbol of the working class, who works to make the lives of the powerful comfortable, receiving in return only poverty and suffering. Finally the dogs are a metaphor for the Terror State that Stalin created in Russia to keep order and eliminate political oppositions. So this novel is an attack against the corruption of the leaders, dominated by the thirst for power, that think about their personal interests exploiting people. The book also shows how the revolutions that arise from noble ideals then degenerate. 1984 1984 is Orwell's most famous work and its title is an inversion of 1948 when the novel was written. 1984 is a dystopian novel, in fact, it's the terrifying description of a future world where citizens are oppressed by a totalitarian regime. PLOT The story is set in the England of the future. In 1984 the world is divided into three large states: Oceania, Eastasia and Eurasia, which are constantly at war with each other. Great Britain is located in Oceania and London is the capital. Oceania is ruled by a single party (The Party) led by Big Brother, a character that no one has actually ever seen, but whose poster, depicting a man very similar to Hitler and Stalin, is posted in the streets and buildings of the country. Below each poster there is a caption: Big Brother is Watching You. In the world of 1984 there is no privacy, all citizens live under continuous surveillance, in fact, microphones and television screens with cameras are placed everywhere and from these devices the Party spreads its propaganda continuously and manipulates the minds of the population through the Ministry of Truth. Citizens are also checked in their houses and children are educated to denounce their parents. In this regime positive human feelings like love, friendship, mutual trust are forbidden, only hate and fear are allowed. The Party imposes a Newspeak that is a purified version of English deprived of words that express disagreement. Another instrument of control and coercion is doublethink, that is the ability to