George Orwell
HIS LIFE AND BACKGROUND:
WHY DID HE WRITE THIS ESSAY?
What we will learn in this
presentation...

We will learn how the era Orwell lived in affected his
writings

What ideas and beliefs were held in that specific era

How “Politics and The English Language” was a direct
response to his generation

How his essay is still relevant to today.

How his life choices and life’s uninterrupted path changed
his views and writings.
His birth and small facts

Born in 1903

India

Settled in Henley-on-Thames

Eric Arthur Blair

Started writing at an early age.

“I had the lonely child’s habit of making up stories
and holding conversations with imaginary persons,
and I think from the very start my literature ambitions
were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and
undervalued.”
Early Encounters
with politics and
violence
1922: Orwell Joined the Indian Imperial
Police Force
1927: Resigned after 5 years of service
His focus was to become a writer
From “Politics and the English
Language:”
“When one watches some tired hack
on the platform mechanically repeating
the familiar phrases… one often has a
curious feeling that one is not watching
a live human being but somekind of
dummy.”
His Works: A window to his life.

He began working low paying jobs, before he became a successful
writer.

Worked as a dishwasher

First published book: Down and Out in Paris.


Looked at the brutal living qualities of the working man
Now when thinking about our assigned text:

What had he experienced, to write this cautionary essay to hid
generation
From: “Why I Write.” by George
Orwell

“…I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing
something of his early development. His subject matter will be
determined by the age he lives in – at least this is true in tumultuous,
revolutionary ages like our own…”

Historical impulse: desire to see things as they are, to find out true
facts and store them up for the use of posterity

POSTERITY: Future generations
What Was Going On?
George Orwell Timeline
(DATE)
(WHATS HAPPENING)
1936 -1937
The Spanish War
1939
WW2 officially begins
1941
Orwell begins propaganda work
for BBC
1943
Orwell resigns from BBC
Orwell becomes editor of Tribune
(socialist Newspaper)
1946
Politics and the English Language
1949
Orwell is suspected a communist
1984 Published
1950
Orwell dies of Tuberculosis
Music from the time period
*Vera Lynn- we’ll meet again (1939)*
Politics and The English
Language
(1946)

4 sings of dull modern
language

6 rules to break from dull writing

English Language is dying

Bad habits

Obsession with Scientific
Language
4 signs of dull writing

Dying metaphor:

Metaphor:

A figurative language, where two dissimilar objects or ideas are
compared to bring forth a shared factor:



Example: His tears were drops of water from a broken, glass cup. They
were unexpected yet subtle
A dying metaphor is one that is over used, it has lost its meaning
and usefulness
Operators or Verbal False Limbs

Where a single word is changed to a whole verb phrase, to
simply add syllables and length

Examples: 1. give rise to, 2. render inoperative 3. exhibit a tendency
to
4 sings of dull writing…continued

Pretentious Diction

Words that are used to dress up a
sentence

Scientific impartiality to biased judgments


Words include: constitute, exhibit, exploit,
status quo
Meaningless Words

Words that have lost their meaning through
overuse or generality

Dead, human, living, fascism

Private definitions:

A generic word can have a private meaning
that a writer or a speaker might understand
but the reader will not
The difficulty of describing the
abstract…
Abstract: Pablo Picasso
Concrete: Millet
Orwell’s 6 basic rules
Number Rules
1
Never use a metaphor simile, or other figure of speech that is
overused
2
Never use a long word where a short one will do
3
If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out
4
Never use the passive, where you can use the active qq
5
Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you
can think of an equivalent English one
6
Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous
Why was this written?

Why does Orwell hate political writing, why does he hate writing that
is unclear?

What does writing contribute to Wars that guns, violence, and
death cannot?

Why would we need to clear up our writing, what do we have to
change in our world?
Final thoughts
“if you simplify your English, you are freed from the worst follies
of orthodoxy. You cannot speak any of the necessary
dialects, and when you make a stupid remark its stupidity, will
be obvious , even to yourself. Political Language…is designed
to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable.
One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least
change one’s own habits, and from time to time, one can
even send some worn-out and useless phrase…into the
dustbin where it belongs.