George Orwell s Plea For Understanding - 2384 Words

Kervick 10 Orwell?s Plea for Understanding George Orwell has gone done in history as one of the greatest novelists of the Twentieth Century. His works Animal Farm and 1984 have been acclaimed masterpieces of social commentary. While his less known work ?Shooting an Elephant? is perceived as imperial criticism, it is actually much more. It constitutes his public declaration of why he chose to leave his job, live for years with the poorest of the poor and flip his political views upside down. Born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari Bengal1, Orwell was always acutely aware of his social position. His father, Richard Walmesly Blair, worked as an administrator in the Opium Department of the Indian Government. Richards marriage to Ida Mabel Limouzin Blair2, the daughter of an unsuccessful teak merchant, firmly established his family as members of the landless gentry which constituted a large part of the Sahib class. This being the case, Orwell was born into an ?atmosphere of impoverished snobbery.?3 he would later try to pinpoint his family?s social standing by calling it the ?lower-upper-middle class.?4 This position divided him from his peers when he finally started school. Returning to England in 1905 at age two with his mother and brother, it wasn?t until his father retired and joined them in 19115 that Orwell started his education.6 Despite the scarcity of money, Orwell was sent to St. Cyprian?s, a prestigious boarding school in Eastbourne7, along the southern coast of England.Show MoreRelatedDifferent Forms Of Government Treat Their Citizens2121 Words   |  9 Pagesdifferent ways. George Orwell illuminates a society in which the government has complete control and people are forced to follow any and all demands from their leaders. This dystopic society shows how a completely totalitarian government connects with the people. Oceania, the country in which the main character Winston lives, is ruled by â€Å"The Party†. In order to stop a revolution there is surveillance at all times and citizens are â€Å"vaporized† if they are believed to be nonconformists (Orwell). In the novelRead More Terrorism Essay2696 Words   |  11 PagesGeorg e Orwell once said, â€Å"Political language— with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists—is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.† In today’s modern society, the world is continuing to become smaller and more interconnected than ever before due to media networks such as Cable News Network (CNN) providing round-the-clock news coverage and the Internet. In the last few decades, bothRead MoreHistory of Social Work18530 Words   |  75 Pages....................4 Understanding History through Historical Phases .......................................................................................................5 Photos of Walter Friedlander Simon Patten 9who used the term social work first time) ....................................9 The Settlement House ..................................................................................... .......................................................10 Understanding the History of Social Welfare

The Revolution Of The Communist Party - 1263 Words

When you are in a revolution as large as the Bolsheviks were in Russia, it can be reasonably expected that everyone in their group is in on it. There are a myriad of different opinions possible but if you were a member of the Communist party, you would think you would be expected to commit to and follow communist beliefs. In the article â€Å"Paper Communists† Gayle Lonergan, from the University of Oxford, paints a picture of men who saw the communist party as a way out. She documents how many men saw â€Å"such benefits as preferential food rations and free health care† (p. 139)(1) and wanted to have the opportunity to get out of the farm country. Lonergan also argues the key issue of how much of the communist population was actually committed to†¦show more content†¦It is clear Evaluation The dominant purpose of this article seems to be to say that the Bolsheviks only managed to stay afloat as a movement because after they were victorious in the early part of the civil war, peasants saw them as the attractive option which to ride on. Leading to (for a short period of time) an incredibly large influx of peasants. Lonergan spends the majority of the article walking on a tightrope, saying that it was embarrassing for the Bolsheviks to have their ranks filled with all of these inexperienced men looking to get out of work while at the same time documenting the irony of the truth that the Bolsheviks based in Central Russia did not have the manpower to convince the masses outside of Moscow and Petrograd. They would not have been able to reach the further points of Russia and Siberia because people were not necessarily interested in the Communist beliefs there but they were interested at the opportunity of sitting in an office all day rather than manual labour on a farm. It i s clear that even though the â€Å"Paper Communists† had a strong lacsidaisical attitude towards the movement they were a key part of the advancement of the Bolshevik movement. Lonergan disagrees with both some scholars that she references in the article as well as â€Å"the traditional

Ronald Reagan Free Essays

Ronald Wilson Reagan was born on February 6, 1911, in Tampico, Illinois, to John Edward â€Å"Jack† Reagan and Nellie Wilson Reagan. His father nicknamed him â€Å"Dutch,† saying he looked like â€Å"a fat little Dutchman. † During Reagan’s early childhood, his family lived in multiple towns, finally settling in Dixon, Illinois, in 1920, where Jack Reagan opened a shoe store. We will write a custom essay sample on Ronald Reagan or any similar topic only for you Order Now In 1928, Ronald Reagan graduated from Dixon High School, where he was an athlete and student body president and performed in school plays. During summer vacations, he worked as a lifeguard in Dixon. Enrolling t Eureka College in Illinois on an athletic scholarship, Reagan majored in economics and sociology. There, he played football, ran track, captained the swim team, served as student council president and acted in school productions. After graduating in 1932, he found a Job as a radio sports announcer in Iowa. In 1938, Reagan co-starred in the film Brother Rat with actress Jane Wyman. They got engaged at the Chicago theatre and then married on January 26, 1940. Together they had two children, Maureen, and Christine (who was born in 1947 but only lived one day), and adopted a third, Michael. Following arguments about Reagan’s political ambitions, Wyman filed for divorce in 1948. The divorce was finalized in 1949. He is the only US president to have been divorced. Reagan met actress Nancy Davis in 1949 after she contacted him while he was president of the Screen Actors Guild to help her with issues regarding her name appearing on a communist blacklist in Hollywood (she had been mistaken for another Nancy Davis). She described their meeting by saying, â€Å"l don’t know if it was exactly love at first sight, but it was pretty close. † They were engaged at Chasen’s restaurant in Los Angeles and were married n March 4, 1952, at the Little Brown Church in the San Fernando Valley. They had two children named Patti and Ron. Friends described the Reagans’ relationship as close, authentic and intimate. He often called her â€Å"Mommy† she called him â€Å"Ronnie†. He once wrote to her, â€Å"Whatever I treasure and enjoy all would be without meaning if I didn’t have you. When he was in the hospital in 1981, she slept with one of his shirts to be comforted by his scent. In a letter to U. S. citizens written in 1994, Reagan wrote, â€Å"l have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s disease. I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience†, and in 1998, while Reagan was suffering by Alzheimer’s, Nancy told Vanity Fair, â€Å"Our relationship is very special. We were very much in love and still are. When I say my life began with Ronnie, well, it’s true. It did. I can’t imagine life without him. † Reagan stepped into the national political spotlight in 1964, when he gave a well- received televised speech for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, a dedicated conservative. Two years later, in his first race for public office, Reagan defeated Democratic incumbent Edmund â€Å"Pat† Brown Sr. y almost 1 million votes, winning the California governorship. He was re-elected to a second term in 1970. How to cite Ronald Reagan, Papers