George Orwell Notes
George Orwell Research
Annie Ward
His real name and reason behind this change. * He was born as Eric Arthur Blair * The reason he changed his name was due to a sudden change in his own lifestyle; we went from being a pillar of the British imperial establishment to a literary and political rebel. * He never fully abandoned his original name, but all of his official work came under the name of George Orwell * The surname he adopted came from a river in East Anglia called Orwell which he visited when he was a young boy.
His upbringing.
(Young life) * He was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal. This place used to be a British colony but it is now India. * His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service (group of British that controlled the Indian colony) * When he was one year old, his mother Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair him and his 6-year-old sister Marjorie and moved back to England to raise the children there. This was common at the time, so the children had the chance of a true british life and a strong education. * They were part of what may be described as "lower-upper-middle class"of British society. * As a young boy he attended St. Cyprian's, a rigorous boys' boarding school in East Sussex, England. * He was a good student but hated boarding school. Even as a young boy he noted differences in how the staff treated wealthy students compared to scholarship students like him. * His reasonable grades got him a prestigious King's Scholarship to Eton College, and in 1917 he went to the famous boys' high school. Once he got there, he hated it, ditched his work and his grades plummeted down. He left in 1921 without his diploma.
(Young adult years) * After failing in high school, he instead got into the Indian Imperial Police (the British colonial force that kept control of the South Asian colonies). Once he got in, in 1922 he headed off to Burma. * Eric Blair spent five years
Annie Ward
His real name and reason behind this change. * He was born as Eric Arthur Blair * The reason he changed his name was due to a sudden change in his own lifestyle; we went from being a pillar of the British imperial establishment to a literary and political rebel. * He never fully abandoned his original name, but all of his official work came under the name of George Orwell * The surname he adopted came from a river in East Anglia called Orwell which he visited when he was a young boy.
His upbringing.
(Young life) * He was born on 25 June 1903 in Motihari, Bengal. This place used to be a British colony but it is now India. * His father, Richard Walmesley Blair, worked in the Indian Civil Service (group of British that controlled the Indian colony) * When he was one year old, his mother Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair him and his 6-year-old sister Marjorie and moved back to England to raise the children there. This was common at the time, so the children had the chance of a true british life and a strong education. * They were part of what may be described as "lower-upper-middle class"of British society. * As a young boy he attended St. Cyprian's, a rigorous boys' boarding school in East Sussex, England. * He was a good student but hated boarding school. Even as a young boy he noted differences in how the staff treated wealthy students compared to scholarship students like him. * His reasonable grades got him a prestigious King's Scholarship to Eton College, and in 1917 he went to the famous boys' high school. Once he got there, he hated it, ditched his work and his grades plummeted down. He left in 1921 without his diploma.
(Young adult years) * After failing in high school, he instead got into the Indian Imperial Police (the British colonial force that kept control of the South Asian colonies). Once he got in, in 1922 he headed off to Burma. * Eric Blair spent five years