THESE FAMOUS WORDS conjure up the nightmare of George Orwell’s 1984—a bleak future where everyone is under government surveillance. Born Eric Arthur Blair in 1903, Orwell is best known for his novels warning readers about the dangers of totalitarianism. Set in a barnyard, Animal Farm (1945) was a satire of Soviet Communism: the animals revolt and overthrow the farmers, only to create another unfair society, the only difference being that this time the pigs are the masters. 1984—published in 1949, a year before Orwell’s death—was a cautionary tale about a world of endless war. A government called “the Party” brainwashes its citizens to believe that “War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.” If you don’t agree with the Party about ignorance, take this quick quiz and learn a little more about Orwell.
TRUE OR FALSE?
1. George Orwell was born in India.
2. After high school, Orwell worked as a labor organizer in northern England.
3. Eric Arthur Blair took the pen name “George Orwell” to conceal his class background, especially his upper-crust education.
4. Orwell was almost killed during World War II.
5. Orwell created and broadcast war propaganda for Britain.
ANSWERS
1. True. Orwell was born to British parents in Mothari, Bengal, where his father worked in the government’s Opium Department. His mother moved him to England a year later.
2. False. After graduating from the prestigious boarding school Eton, Orwell joined the British police force in Burma, where he served for five years. The experience sharpened his mistrust of people in power and inspired his first novel, Burmese Days.
3. True. Blair became “George Orwell” in 1933 with the publication of Down and Out in London and Paris, not wanting his Eton education to skew readers’ opinions of this book about poverty.
4. False. But Orwell was indeed injured fighting in the Spanish Civil War. In December 1936, Orwell joined an anarchist unit of the Republicans in Spain, fighting the fascist Nationalists led by Francisco Franco. The following May, he was shot through the neck—an injury that almost cost him his life.
5. True. From 1941 to 1943 he was a radio broadcaster to India for the BBC. Orwell’s experience creating propaganda inspired ideas like “doublespeak” and the “Ministry of Truth” in 1984.