Influence Of War In George Orwell's '1984'

Cindy Tran
Mrs. Nolen
AP English IV
18 September 2014
1984-Influences of War
The novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell was greatly shaped by the author’s experience in preparatory school, and the events of the Spanish war, and World War II, that took place throughout his lifetime.
Orwell first became aware of class distinctions while attending preparatory school in Sussex where he was teased because he did not come from a wealthy family. This cruel experience sensitized him to social snobbery. In his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, he writes about three very diverse social class groups where the majority of the citizens are categorized in the lowest class rank (“1984”).
In 1936, Orwell traveled to Spain to write about the Spanish
Civil War, but ended up joining the war himself (“1984”). He fought against Franco’s Communist Party in their headquarters where it was full of propaganda containing portraits of the infamous leaders Hitler and Stalin (Esenwein). Propaganda was one of Franco’s techniques to gaining control. The experience of fighting on the side of the republicans allowed Orwell to confidently defend his political ideas in dozens of his essays (“1984”).
Adolf Hitler, leader of Germany, slaughtered his enemies and killed off his own people.
On the other side was Joseph Stalin who was the dictator of Russia and leader of the Soviet Union. Both rulers were known for “vaporizing” anyone who did not comply with what their government valued (“1984”).
In his novel, he writes about the face of Big Brother plastered on the inside and outside walls of London (“1984”). It is believed Orwell fused the figures of Hitler and Stalin into Big Brother because all three figures had distinctive dark mustaches and totalitarian ideals. They undermined the freedom of speech and circulated propaganda lies to exert control over every facet of people’s lives (“1984”). Orwell believed that truth and freedom are dependent on each other and all three figures, Hitler, Stalin, and Big Brother, manipulated the truth for their own ends (Dwan).
During World War II, London was attacked by the German air force against Hitler’s orders not to bomb. Britain’s Royal Navy Bases fought back and the bombing continued for over a year. Then Germans gave up trying to overtake Britain from air, but London’s cityscape and rural areas had been completely devastated (Stokesbury). Nineteen Eighty-Four contained similar qualities by being set in London and described as a war- torn community that resulted from bombings
(“1984”).
The impact of war and coming from a lower class influenced Orwell to center his writing on violence, the power of propaganda, and suffrage. Nineteen Eighty-Four was used as a warning that too much power would only lead to war and in order to be free of war, no one must give them control.

Works Cited
Dwan, David. "Truth and Freedom in Orwell 's Nineteen Eighty-Four." Philosophy and Literature 34.2 (Oct. 2010): 381-393. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Kathy D. Darrow. Vol. 276. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
Esenwein, George R. "Spanish Civil War." World Book Student. World Book, 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
Stokesbury, James L. "World War II." World Book Student. World Book, 2014. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.
"1984." Novels for Students. Ed. Deborah A. Stanley. Vol. 7. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 233-255. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 18 Sept. 2014.