Animal Farm Author Notes

The belief that power corrupts was a solid force in the creation of George Orwell’s famous controversial novel Animal Farm.

Facts about George Orwell Born Eric Arthur Blair on June 25, 1903 in Bengal, India. Son of British colonial civil servant Educated at Eton in England, then left for Burma to join the Indian Imperial Police for five years In Burma, witnessed corruption in the form of imperialism (a system of government that extends its rule over foreign territories)

In 1936, Orwell joined the Spanish Civil War. He later fled after experiencing the horrors of the war, including the distorted truth of propaganda (the spreading of ideas or information to further or damage a cause). Orwell believed that “official war-propaganda, with its disgusting hypocrisy and self- righteousness, always tends to make thinking people sympathize with the enemy” (Orwell, “Looking Back on the Spanish Civil War”). In other words, propaganda has the ability to make even the most intelligent people believe that something is right when it is completely wrong. Orwell’s experiences in the Spanish Civil War reinforced his belief that power corrupts.

Orwell began writing Animal Farm in 1943. The novel exposed the notion that power was corrupt, and thus, revolutions were futile (useless). The novel was written as an allegory in which animals and plot details closely portray historical figures and events that resemble the 1917 Russian Revolution.