Contents

Write a note on the life of George Orwell.

When George Orwell was born at Motihari a town of Bengal in India, in 1903, his father was an officer in the opium department of Indian custom and excise there. After his birth, his father retired on very small pension. Therefore, his family had to leave Bengal for England. There, his family has to face poverty because it was very difficult for his father to support his family with very small pension. George was only son of his parents while he had two sisters, one was elder and the other was younger to him. At his early age, he became aware of social differences. As a son, he was closer to his mother. His father could not impress him with his personality, and at the very early age, he began to dislike his father. He wrote somewhere that, “Looking back on childhood after the infant years were over, except my mother, and even her I did not trust in the sense that shyness made me conceal most of my real feeling from her. I merely, disliked my own father whom I had barely seen before I was eight and who appeared to me simply as a gruff voiced elderly man forever saying don’t.” He also confessed that his family belonged to a lower middle class, that was not far from bottom.

George Orwell took his early education at Eton. At school, he was humiliated by the students and the teachers because of his poverty. In essay “Such, Such were the Joys”, he presented the bitter days of his school life. He could never forget his teacher who once said to him, “You know, you are not going to grow up with money, don’t you? Your people are not rich. You must learn to be sensible. Don’t get above yourself. Despite his poverty, he won scholarship at Eton during his early education.

After education at Eton, when he thought of higher education which was available at the university only, some of his well wishers had advised him to find a job for himself. In view of his poverty, he could not ignore their suggestions. He joined Indian Imperial Police Service and was sent to Burma, and served there from 1922 to 1927. His experiences of those days, he wrote in Burmese Days’. There outwardly he acted as Sahib, shouldering the white man’s burden efficiently, inwardly he disapproved of his job. He was highly disappointed in this job due to the lack of freedom. In fact, he could pot forget the mission of his life that he was to become a writer, instead of wasting the precious days of life in making money.

Malcolm Muggeridge, the famous essayist writes that he could not tolerate unsentimental life of police. George Orwell himself confessed that “for five years I had been part of an oppressive system and it left me with a bad conscience……. I was conscious of an mmense weight of guilt that I had got a expiate.” In 1927, he returned to England on leave. But he determined to leave the job. George Orwell had a great desire to become a great writer, went to Pairs to write articles and books. But he was harassed by the publishers. When his money was spent, he had to work as a dish-washer and had live in the most sordid and filthy atmosphere. During that period, he came in contact with the oppressed people of the society. He wrote, these (that is tramps, criminals, beggars, prostitutes) were the lowest of the low, and these were the people with whom I wanted to get into contact.” Thus he wished to identify himself with the poverty stricken people and to equate his sufferings with that of their’s.

When George Orwell returned to England in the summer of 1936, he married Eileen O’Shaughnessy. In order to write newspaper articles about war, he went to Spain and recounted his experiences in Spain in Homage to Catalonia’ in 1938. He returned to England before the beginning of second world war. He tried to join the army but he could not be selected in army because of his lungs trouble and Spanish war wound. He was very much disappointed. In 1940, he joined the Home Guard and began to serve in Indian Service of the B.B.C. Broadcasting to Malaya. As soon as the war was over, Orwell resigned and came back to his literary work.

During 1945, Orwell had to face poverty a lot. He started writing regularly for a number of periodicals and newspapers like Tribune’, and ‘Observer’. He tried his best to earn his livelihood from the writing work, but he could not save his wife who died from a minor peration. Thus, this year brought a great sorrow for him. He wished so publish ‘Animal Farm’, which was completed in February, 1944, but it was rejected by four publishers. Later on, it was published and it earned a great fame for him. He remained busy in journalism for two more years in London.

In 1947, Orwell left to Jura, Hebirdean island of the west coast of Scotland, taking his adopted son with him. In 1949, he married again with Sonia Brownell who was an editorial assistant in Horizon, a literary periodical to which he contributed a lot. In the same year, his another novel, ‘1984’ was published. His second marriage gave him an opportunity to look into future. He started to write a book on Conard. But none of his plans could be matured. On 23rd January, 1950, he became a victim of haemorrhage and died.