Presentation about George Orwell (text)

George Orwell

Early Years

George Orwell’s real name is  Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in 1903 in Motihari. That is a town in the British Colony India.

He was a lonely boy. He liked to make up stories and talk with imaginary companions. He could hardly write when he started to write.

Poems and short stories were his way to deal with his boredom and loneliness. When he was 11 his first poem was published.

Adult Years

George Orwell moved around quite a bit.

From London he moved to Burma to work for the police. He started to dislike British Imperialism then.

After some time in Paris he moved to London and worked as a school teacher. He had jobs to earn money to be able to go on with his writing.

Orwell was positive minded about a true socialist state. He lived in Spain to write about the Spanish Civil War and was against the Fascist party.

George Orwell worked for the BBC broadcast, as a  literary editor of ‘The Tribune’ .

Later on he became a war correspondent for ‘The Observer’ in Paris and Cologne.

George Orwell got tuberculosis which affected his whole life and made him stay in hospital several times.

He married twice in his life and had an adopted son.

1950 he died of tuberculosis aged only 47.

Orwell’s writing

His career lasted nearly seventeen years.

George Orwell wrote two of the most important literary masterpieces of the 20th century: Animal Farm and 1984.

In his writing Orwell’s was looking for truth. Even his fiction has elements of the world around him.

Orwell has said that he writes because there is some kind of lie that he has to make visible. That there are some facts to which he wants to draw attention.

 

George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)

Early Years

George Orwell’s real name is  Eric Arthur Blair. He was born in 1903 in Motihari, Bengal. That is a city in India. That was the time that India was a British colony.

George Orwell spent his early years in India. He was a lonely boy who liked to make up stories and talk with imaginary companions. George began to “write” before he even knew how. When he was 8 years old, his parents sent him to a boarding school in England. There he began to write poems and short stories. That was his way to deal with his boredom and loneliness. He was only eleven years old when he published his first work. (a poem called “Awake Young Men of England”)

Adult Years

George Orwell moved to Burma in 1922. There he worked for the police. After 5 years he stopped working there. That was because Orwell started to dislike British Imperialism. After living and working in Paris, he moved to London. His first novel Down and Out in Paris and London’ was published in 1933. In that time Orwell was teaching in a small private school in Middlesex. He got tuberculosis which affected his whole life and made him stay in hospital several times.

Then Orwell worked in a bookshop. There he met his soulmate Eileen O’Shaughnessy. They married in 1936. Shortly after that he went to Spain to write newspaper articles about the Spanish Civil War. He was positive minded about a true socialist state. Orwell joined the fight against the Fascist party.

By 1939, Orwell had returned to England. In 1941, he took a position with the BBC for broadcasting to India and Southeast Asia. He disliked spreading information propaganda to these British colonies. It was against his nature and his political philosophy.

In 1943, Orwell got a job he liked much better: He became the literary editor of The Tribune.

Orwell and Eileen adopted a son in 1944. Shortly after that Orwell became a war correspondent for the Observer in Paris and Cologne, Germany. Eileen died in the beginning of that year. That was a tragedy for Orwell, just before the publication of one of his most important novels: Animal Farm.

Even though is health was bad, Orwell continued his writing and completed the ‘1984’ in 1948, published one year later with great success.

Orwell married in 1949 Sonia Brownell. Just one year later he died of tuberculosis.

Orwell’s writing

His career lasted nearly seventeen years. Ironically is that Orwell didn’t consider himself a novelist, but he wrote two of the most important literary masterpieces of the 20th century: Animal Farm and 1984. These are also the most famous novels of his career. His memoirs, other novels, and his work are also important for twentieth century literature.

In his writing Orwell’s was looking for truth. Even his fiction has elements of the world around him: the wars and struggles that he saw, the terrible nature of politics, and the terrible impact that totalitarianism has on the human spirit.

From the time he began to write at the age of twenty-four, Orwell wanted to show the struggles of “real” people, to live among the less fortunate, and to tell their stories.

Orwell has said something about his own writing. He writes because there is some kind of lie that he has to make visible. That there are some facts to which he wants to draw attention.