An Autobiography Through Fiction-Based Prose

An Autobiography through Fiction-Based Prose

Though it may be ironic to some, the renowned author, George Orwell, became famous only a few short years before his tragic death. In fact, many of the world's most celebrated writers experienced the same fate. "Eric Arthur Blair was born in Motihar in Bengal, India, on 25 June 1903" (Oldsey 2). After a few beginning essays and other writings, Blair adopted the pen-name George Orwell in the early 1930s. Orwell attended prestigious schools like St. Cyprian's and later Eton, which contributed to Orwell's exemplary writing and work (Oldsey 2). Growing up in the middle class in England, Orwell was forced to work exceedingly hard to stay in school and ascend to higher knowledge. Some years after Eton, Orwell "precipitously dropped out of the middle class and the pukka sahib category into the lower depths of London and Paris, and then the coal-mining town of Wigan ..." (Oldsey 5). These endeavors into the lower class would later affect the themes in his novels of the middle class responsibility for change. "Orwell was born into the impoverished upper-middle class, a particularly unhappy section of English society where a small income is strained to the utmost in the desperate struggle to keep up appearances, and where, for the very fact that social position as almost all these people possess, snobbery is more highly developed and class distinction more closely observed than anywhere else in the complicated hierarchy of English society" (Woodcock 237). Throughout Orwell's life, he traveled to many parts of the world and the settings of his novels reflect those travels. Orwell is widely known as a man with heavy political ideals and beliefs. Many of his novels, especially ones written later in his life, use characters to represent different political leaders and different forms of government including Socialism, Marxism, Leninism, and Totalitarianism. Consequently, the life of George Orwell is seen through his writings because his middle class background affects his themes (responsibility for change in the middle class), his travels influenced his increasing interest in world politics, and his politics are represented in his characters.

George Orwell's middle class upbringing gave him distinct feelings towards society, which can clearly be seen in his themes. As Oldsey states, "(He) felt that expressions and materials in his account of low-life in two capitals [Paris and London] might prove embarrassing, especially for his family, who were members of what he would later call, with almost parodistic English precision, the 'lower-upper-middle class'" (Oldsey 1). Members of this class constantly struggled to keep up appearances to compete with the higher classes. People in the 'lower-upper-middle classes spent much of their money on elaborate clothing and other unnecessary items. Orwell went to prestigious schools as a child, but since he lacked the necessary funding, he was forced to work exceedingly hard to stay in those schools. "Some critics have argued that the author's physical deterioration-as well as psychic wounds left over from St. Cyprian's- determined the thematic defeat and despair of (1984)" (Oldsey15). After school, Orwell went on to work in a number of lowly jobs. He placed himself into the lower realms of society, effectively dropping out of the middle class. In doing this, Orwell experienced first hand the difficult lives of the common people. "Gordon (a character in the novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying) has an affair with a young woman named Rosemary, who later informs him they are going to have a baby. Under these circumstances, (Gordon) Comstock emerges as the first indication of Orwell's almost mystical appreciation of the common folk of England" (Oldsey 8). Because of these experiences, Orwell used his writings to inspire change in society and to ridicule its prejudices.

In his novels Orwell placed responsibility on the middle class to enact change in all of British society. Based on his experience in Burma, Orwell posed a serious question to his readers in Burmese Days. "Here in Burmese Days Orwell fixed on a thematic question that would dominate his next three novels: how does an individual formed by the English middle-class transcend, or at least escape, the dictates of his or her society?" (Oldsey 5). Orwell voiced the common thought and feeling of hopelessness. How do people climb out of the societal hole they are born into? Through Flory, a character in Burmese days, Orwell personified hopelessness. Oldsey says:

Flory, of Burmese Days, is something of a misfit; like Orwell, he is eminently 'unclubbable.' He does not fit in with the pukka sahibs and he is betrayed by a wily Burmese. A weak, ranting, lonely figure, Flory tries to find some kind of personal escape through liaison with a priggish woman of his own caste, Elizabeth Lackersteen. When that fails, he is ripe for suicide; and, according to John Atkins, Burmese Days is a fictive extrapolation of Orwell's own life in the Orient, and an indication of how it might have ended (8).

Orwell wanted people to take charge of their own personal troubles. He wanted people to stop placing blame on the upper class for keeping them down and blame on the lower class for further pulling them down. Orwell also showed how, in this instance, taking responsibility failed.

In another of his novels, The Clergyman's Daughter, Orwell wrote of yet another character trying to escape an unsatisfactory life. "Dorothy, (in The Clergyman's Daughter), is offered a chance to escape her middle-class background by a sybaritic fellow named Warburton, but she is sexually repressed and full of morbid fears; so she finally retreats to her parental home..."(Oldsey 8). Even though Orwell wrote of struggling characters and their sad lives, his main theme was placing responsibility on the people of the middle class for their own problems and to change them themselves. One character, Gordon Comstock, realizes this and does exactly what Orwell wants everyone to do. "Comstock accepts his responsibility, marries Rosemary, and in the process comes to perceive, somewhat ruefully, that the lives of common men and women may be the salvation of us all" (Oldsey 9). Orwell hoped to start a change in society through the leadership of the middle class.

Orwell's disdain towards the prejudicial class system is evident in the content of his novels. "Orwell has cried his disgust in his novels...because he has felt the horrors of oppression and exploitation" (Gorer 121). After working among the lower classes, he acquired a strong dislike for the upper class which was reflected in his work. "The constant attitude of his novels has