George Orwell Research Paper

George Orwell was born Eric Blair in Colonial India in 1903 to Richard, a member of the Colonial Police, and Ida Blair. (Sheldon 16) His mother took him and his sister back to England in 1904. He was raised almost entirely by his mother while his father finished his term with the colonial police, so much that Eric did not see his father until 1907. As a young child he was not very social, so his mother encouraged him to read and sent him to a preparatory school, St. Cyprian's at age eight. (Sheldon 23) On a scholarship that allowed him entry at only half the usual fee. (georgeorwell.org)
He claims the school was abusive towards him and other students, though many dispute his claim. Even writing a essay about his resentment towards the school called Such Were the Joys in his later life and was published in 1952, two years after his death. (georgeorwell.org) He stayed there for five years, learning more about literature and doing military drills during period of the First World War, before attending Wellington College for about nine weeks, while he waited for his …show more content…
He met Eileen Maud O’Shaughnessy, who he claimed would be his wife, he proposed several times across the summer of 1935, but she refused. During the late 30’s as Fascism rose in Germany and Italy, so he turned to socialism, even writing a book about it, Keep the Aspidistra Flying. After Keep the Aspidistra Flying was published he quit his job and moved to the north of England for about two months to study the conditions. The horrible, dangerous, and unsanitary conditions he saw drove him further to socialism as the only hope of fixing those problems (Sheldon 193-240). He wrote the Road to Wigan Pier about his experiences there and was promoted by the “Left Book Club”, who were communists, even though it was against forms of communism.