Expanding on Nineteen Eighty-Four : Orwell’s Works Since 1936
By: Cynthia Lin
Nineteen Eighty-Four is just one of George Orwell’s many works that illustrates his hatred for totalitarianism and his support for democratic socialism. Other well-known works by Orwell that expand on these and similar ideas include his 1946 essay “Why I Write”, his 1939 novel Coming Up for Air, and his 1945 satiric fable Animal Farm.
In “Why I Write”, Orwell lists what he believes are every writer’s four great motives for writing: sheer egoism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. His negative life experiences as an Indian Imperial Policeman in Burma and as an individual who underwent poverty influenced his later writing style to reflect mostly on the latter two motives. These experiences increased Orwell’s awareness of imperialism, amplified his “natural hatred of authority”, and opened his eyes to the “existence of the working classes” (Orwell 313). His passion for these positions grew stronger as Hitler and the Spanish Civil War advanced; the turning point for his political writing style came in 1936. From that point on, Orwell strove to “make political writing into an art” by exposing and drawing attention to political lies through his writing (315).
With British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler and the Spanish Civil War coming to a close in 1938, marking a “victory for fascism” (Quinn 114-15), Orwell feared that a war with Germany would result in fascism for England as well. As a result, he wrote Coming Up for Air to illustrate the ominous possibility of a war that would be fought. Having a didactic purpose in mind, Orwell structured the setting and plot of the novel to reflect the tense and dreary conditions of the current pre-war period in England, hoping that readers would draw the connections between fiction and reality. Some themes that Orwell raises in the novel include how people are slowly becoming as “artificial as the suburban world” and how people should adopt a pacifist position towards the coming war to avoid fascism (123). Though he already feared the coming war, Orwell ended the novel with the image that he dreaded the post-war world (as envisioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four) even greater. (127) Setting the stage for the catastrophe to happen in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coming Up for Air was Orwell’s warning to the people to brace themselves for the looming war.
Six years later, with the publication of Animal Farm, Orwell transformed from a well-known English essayist and minor novelist into a best-selling author worldwide. His story of “an animal revolution betrayed by the avarice and corruption of a small minority” brilliantly told a tale of the origins and downfall of the Russian Revolution and of Soviet Union history from 1917 to 1943 through the perspectives of those on a farm, both animal and human (Quinn 39). The fable also satirically portrayed the development of the Soviet system under Joseph Stalin, consequently playing a role in the Soviet system’s demise. (48) Animal Farm explores the idea of utopianism, which is countered by the dystopian society in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Additionally, the fable discusses the themes of the nature of power (specifically dictatorial power) and the application of terror and propaganda to gain and maintain that power; likewise, Nineteen Eighty-Four examines these themes through Big Brother’s character and consequently, through the Party. Furthermore, the universal representation of revolution is also explored in both pieces. Thus, these similarities lead many critics to view Animal Farm as a prelude to Nineteen Eighty-Four. (52)
These three Orwell works reinforce the attitudes and values laid out in Nineteen Eighty-Four. “Why I Write” reveals the origins of his passion for political writing, and he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coming Up for Air, and Animal Farm as novels that “[recount temporarily] successful but ultimately failed [attempts] to achieve [goals] that [seem] to offer release from a society whose restrictions and limitations poison the possibility of freedom” (Quinn 53). These and Orwell’s other works since 1936 demonstrate his support for public awareness of problems in the pre- and post-World War II era and show his hope for the people to “regenerate and liberate their lives” (53).
References:
Orwell, George. “Why I Write.” A Collection of Essays. Harcourt, 1953. 309-16. Print.
Quinn, Edward. Critical Companion to George Orwell: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2009. Print.
Nineteen Eighty-Four is just one of George Orwell’s many works that illustrates his hatred for totalitarianism and his support for democratic socialism. Other well-known works by Orwell that expand on these and similar ideas include his 1946 essay “Why I Write”, his 1939 novel Coming Up for Air, and his 1945 satiric fable Animal Farm.
In “Why I Write”, Orwell lists what he believes are every writer’s four great motives for writing: sheer egoism, esthetic enthusiasm, historical impulse, and political purpose. His negative life experiences as an Indian Imperial Policeman in Burma and as an individual who underwent poverty influenced his later writing style to reflect mostly on the latter two motives. These experiences increased Orwell’s awareness of imperialism, amplified his “natural hatred of authority”, and opened his eyes to the “existence of the working classes” (Orwell 313). His passion for these positions grew stronger as Hitler and the Spanish Civil War advanced; the turning point for his political writing style came in 1936. From that point on, Orwell strove to “make political writing into an art” by exposing and drawing attention to political lies through his writing (315).
With British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ceding the Sudetenland to Hitler and the Spanish Civil War coming to a close in 1938, marking a “victory for fascism” (Quinn 114-15), Orwell feared that a war with Germany would result in fascism for England as well. As a result, he wrote Coming Up for Air to illustrate the ominous possibility of a war that would be fought. Having a didactic purpose in mind, Orwell structured the setting and plot of the novel to reflect the tense and dreary conditions of the current pre-war period in England, hoping that readers would draw the connections between fiction and reality. Some themes that Orwell raises in the novel include how people are slowly becoming as “artificial as the suburban world” and how people should adopt a pacifist position towards the coming war to avoid fascism (123). Though he already feared the coming war, Orwell ended the novel with the image that he dreaded the post-war world (as envisioned in Nineteen Eighty-Four) even greater. (127) Setting the stage for the catastrophe to happen in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coming Up for Air was Orwell’s warning to the people to brace themselves for the looming war.
Six years later, with the publication of Animal Farm, Orwell transformed from a well-known English essayist and minor novelist into a best-selling author worldwide. His story of “an animal revolution betrayed by the avarice and corruption of a small minority” brilliantly told a tale of the origins and downfall of the Russian Revolution and of Soviet Union history from 1917 to 1943 through the perspectives of those on a farm, both animal and human (Quinn 39). The fable also satirically portrayed the development of the Soviet system under Joseph Stalin, consequently playing a role in the Soviet system’s demise. (48) Animal Farm explores the idea of utopianism, which is countered by the dystopian society in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Additionally, the fable discusses the themes of the nature of power (specifically dictatorial power) and the application of terror and propaganda to gain and maintain that power; likewise, Nineteen Eighty-Four examines these themes through Big Brother’s character and consequently, through the Party. Furthermore, the universal representation of revolution is also explored in both pieces. Thus, these similarities lead many critics to view Animal Farm as a prelude to Nineteen Eighty-Four. (52)
These three Orwell works reinforce the attitudes and values laid out in Nineteen Eighty-Four. “Why I Write” reveals the origins of his passion for political writing, and he wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four, Coming Up for Air, and Animal Farm as novels that “[recount temporarily] successful but ultimately failed [attempts] to achieve [goals] that [seem] to offer release from a society whose restrictions and limitations poison the possibility of freedom” (Quinn 53). These and Orwell’s other works since 1936 demonstrate his support for public awareness of problems in the pre- and post-World War II era and show his hope for the people to “regenerate and liberate their lives” (53).
References:
Orwell, George. “Why I Write.” A Collection of Essays. Harcourt, 1953. 309-16. Print.
Quinn, Edward. Critical Companion to George Orwell: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2009. Print.