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Honors Literature 9
Six Word Memoir
1984 Bingo 1:Author Study of George Orwell
George Orwell lived during the early 1900s and was renowned for his work as a novelist, essayist, journalist, and critic. His real name was Eric Arthur Blair and he was born in British India on June 25, 1903. The year after Eric was born his mother moved to Oxfordshire taking with her Eric and his two sisters. After staying in Oxfordshire for a few years, the family moved to Shiplake, a rural village situated on the River Thames. It was around the time that the family moved to Shiplake that Eric started to aspire to become a famous writer. Another dystopian writer that inspired Eric was H.G. Wells.
Eric’s earliest successes in Literature came after he wrote two poems that were published in The Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard, the local newspaper. These poems earned him scholarships to Wellington and Eton Colleges. After much indecision, Eric attended Eton until he was 18. Because of a combination of Eric’s academic performance and the lack of money, Eric’s family was unable to send him to a university. After his education years ended, Eric joined the Imperial Police, which was the ancestor of the Indian Police Services.
Eric worked as a police for some time and then decided to become a teacher in 1932. However in 1936, Orwell decided to participate in the Spanish Civil War and he was quickly promoted to a corporal due to his training in the police forces. Orwell’s experiences in the war led him to write Homage to Catalonia a memoir dedicated to his story during the war.
Eric applied to fight in World War II however the British government declared him unfit for any kind of military service. However, inspired by the politics of The War, he wrote one his most famous books Animal Farm.
In July of 1946, Orwell started to work on his final book 1984. Moved to Isle of Jura and he would finish the book and publish it in 1949. On January 21st 1950 Eric Arthur Blair died in University College Hospital and he was buried in All Saints’ Churchyard.
During his life as an author, Orwell earned numerous awards such as being ranked by The Times as “the second greatest British Author since 1945”. In 1984 his book Nineteen Eighty-Four was awarded the Prometheus Award for its contributions to dystopian literature.
1984 Bingo 2:Blog Post- Are we heading towards a dystopian society?
1984 Bingo 3:Blog Post- Ideals of Freedom
1984 Bingo 4: 10 Rules for Your Dystopian Society
2. Never evade the cameras
3. The group is more important than the member
4. All work must be done for the benefit of the government
5. What the government says is absolute law
6. Any resistance is punishable by death
7. Negative thoughts about the government is forbidden
8. Independent thought is forbidden
9. No religious worship
10. The government controls all aspects of life