The Further A Society Drifts From Truth

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“The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.” – George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair (1903 – 1950) is the real name of George Orwell who was an English novelist, essayist, and critic best known for allegorical novella “Animal Farm” and dystopian novel “Nineteen Eighty-four.” His works represent his strong opinions on social justice and the major political movements of his time.

Orwell’s influence is imprinted into the popular and political culture, even language. The eponym Orwellian was formed to describe social practices that are authoritarian or totalitarian. Like Shakespeare, he contributed to the English language through his catchy neologisms, like Big Brother, cold war, Room 101, Memory hole, doublethink, thoughtcrime, and Thought Police. In 2008, The Times magazine put him on the second rank on a list of “The 50 greatest British writers since 1945.”

Following his departure from the India Imperial Force, Orwell wrote his first major work, “Down and Out in Paris and London” which revealed the lives of the working poor and of those stuck in a transient existence. It also revealed his presence state as a struggling writer. Not wishing to embarrass himself and his family, he published the book under the pseudonym George Orwell, derived from the River Orwell in East Anglia.

Most, if not all, of his works illuminated the despairing conditions of his time or in a hypothetical future. The controversy surrounding his bleak novels only made him a prominent and memorable writer. After years of battling with tuberculosis, he died in 1950 in a London hospital at the age of 47. Nevertheless his works continue to immortalize him.