George Orwell

George Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair June 25th 1903, started life in Morihari, Benfal Presidency, British India. Blair was the great- grandson of a wealthy man named Charles Blair. However, by the time Blair was born his family is what, as Blair wrote, would be described as “lower-upper-middle class”. When Blair turned one, however, was when his life really started to shape. At this time, Blair had been moved from his previous home, to England by his mother Ida. Settling in Henley-on-Thames, Blair was brought up without a father figure until 1912 when Blair ‘met’ his father for the first time.
Once again, Blair and his family moved, this time to Shiplake. Here it is said that he met his friend Jacintha in a field up side down. Upon the question of why he was standing up side down he relied "You are noticed more if you stand on your head than if you are right way up". This single event of him standing on his head would foreshadow the rest of Blair’s life. However, the more significant, importance of Jacintha is that this is where Blair started talking about writing books.
The next major event for Blair was when, at the age of five, he was sent to his first school. However, his education was put on a slight hiatus when his school was closed. His family couldn’t afford the cost of public schooling so it was necessary for Blair to obtain a scholarship. Ida, his mother, was determined to find the best possible school for him. She latter arranged for Blair to study at St. Cyprian’s School, Eastbourne, Sussex. However, Blair hated the school and later published his essay Such, Such Were the Joys, on his miserable time at this school. This is his first personal essay I am choosing to read.
In this essay, Blair shows his true voice. Blair shows the reader and up close and personal look at his troubled and difficult childhood. Blair’s honesty, holding back no details, connects the reader to him on a level that many writers that are more modern, lack when writing personal essays. By using such an honest voice Blair captivates his audience, holding them physically and emotionally enthralled.
By making his childhood seem more of a horror story than non-fiction, while keeping an honest tone, Blair makes the reader rethink their own life. This thrusts the reader into a self-analysis that often makes everything they have experienced seem small. However, if the opposites true, the careful thought Blair has put into his diction makes the reader feel at home in Blair’s work. Blair makes these particular readers feel understood and esteemed, while explaining his personal consternation.
For example, in Such, Such Were the Joys Blair writes about a bed-wetting problem he had at school. While most people can connect to this event, physically or even emotionally, Blair takes is quandary to the next level as he explains his trepidation to the next level in the following passage.
“Here is the little boy,” said Bingo, indicating me to the strange lady, “who wets his bed every night. Do you know what I am going to do if you wet your bed again?” she added, turning to me, “I am going to get the Sixth Form to beat you.”…The Sixth Form was a group of older boys who were selected as having “character” and were empowered to beat smaller boys. (Such, 2)

This is one example of the reasons Blair’s writings were so good and why the reader feels so at home and “welcomed” by Blair’s writing. Blair takes problems that most people would see as unfortunate problems and usually have experienced and then uses the reader’s connection to the event to tell a horrific story that has the reader so deep emotionally, that they feel they need to hear more of his life tragedies. This captivation Blair instills into his readers makes his writing so unique.
Another example can be seen in his essay, Shooting an Elephant. This essay now takes place much later in his life, as Blair finds himself a police officer in Mouimein, Lower Burma. In this essay and other works telling a reader about Blair’s life at this time, they learned that he was greatly disliked by the people he served as an officer. The reasons why Blair was disliked are simply explained in his essay Shooting an Elephant. Blair writes, “I was hated by large numbers of people- the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me,” This published work, and my second selection, is just another example of Blair’s life that inspired well thought and brilliantly written writing by an amazing man.
In addition, to inspiring profound works of literature, Blair’s work also actuates people. Blair takes something notable, like being a police officer, shows it in its actuality and at its lowest point, and then manages to make people want to strive to do the same. Blair shows the reader every terrible aspect of this job with complete honesty not sugar coating anything, then forces the reader want to do the same. Blair compels the reader to strive to be better and make that positive difference in the lives of others. A passage illustrating this could be in the opening lines of Shooting and Elephant.
As a police officer I was an obvious target and was baited whenever it seemed safe to do so. When a nimble Burman tripped me up on the football field and the referee (another Burman) looked the other way, the crowd yelled with hideoud laughter. This happened more than once. In the end the sneering yellow faces of young men that met me everywhere, the insults hooted after me when I was at a safe distance, got badly on my nerves. The young Buddhist priests were the worst of all. (Shooting, 148)

This passage clearly would make anyone never want to be a police officer just because Blair shows how bad it truly was. He explains the insults, jeers, taunts, and mistreatment. Blair even goes as far as to say that he wants to up and quite his job because of the oppression he is helping to catechize upon the Burman peoples. However, Blair does give the reader strength to want to become a police officer. In following section Blair describes how hard it was for him to have to kill the elephant but how happy it made the people who had given the insults, jeers, taunts, and mistreatment to him.
The sub-inspector at a police station the other end of town tang me up on the ‘phone and said that an elephant was ravaging bazaar. Would I please come and do something about it. I didn’t know what I could do, but I wanted to see what was happening and I got on to a pony and started out. …It already had destroyed somebody’s bamboo hut, killed a cow and raided some fruit-stalls… As soon as I saw the elephant I knew with perfect certainty that I ought not to shoot him… When I pulled the trigger I did not here the bang or feel the kick…but I heard the devilish roar of glee that went up from the crowd. (Shooting, 151)

Although, Blair then goes on to explain how he felt he had killed the elephant simply because it made him at that moment in times seem like less of a fool, this just adds to his points. Blair gives everything in his honesty. Blair could have just left that part of the story out. However, by keeping it in Blair gives the reader a greater feeling of wanting to help. The reader no longer can question whether or not they would have to deal with their own wants/ feelings over what is “right”. Blair comes right out and tells the reader that ‘yes you will’. This gives the reader a feel of almost friendship with Blair.
Blair has shared himself on so many levels with the reader that he impresses the reader with himself. Blair shared his highs and lows, his hardships and eases, and everything in between with the reader, much as a best friend would. Blair forces the reader to look at him or herself and share their faults with him. This ultimately forces the reader to self-analyses themselves. Blair once again forces the reader to tread the slipper path of self-realization.
The last personal essay I chose to read, that also shows these characteristics, was Marrakech. This like the other two showed Blair’s honesty. Particularly, this one similarly to Shooting an Elephant, showed his honest voice to something he was appalled by. These in turn giving him a chance to show what people are capable of.
Blair starts the essay talking of people in general and their tendencies. He briefly discusses how we treat those close to us, and how people could be cruel to them. However, Blair then describes how people can sympathize with those we don’t even know. This section really caught my attention. This is another place Blair forces self-reflection onto his readers. He makes one consider why it is we treat those close to us with guarded or unattached feelings and those we hardly know with more consideration.
They were Senegalese, the blackest Negroes in Africa, so black that sometimes it is difficult to see where-about on their necks hair begins…It was very hot and the men had marched a long way. They slumped under the weight of their packs and the curiously sensitive black faces were glistening with sweat…
This wretched boy, who is a French citizen and has therefore been dragged from the forest to scrub floors and catch syphilis in garrison towns, actually has feelings of reverence before a white skin. But there is only one thought which every white man thinks when he sees a black army marching past. “How much longer can we go on kidding these people?”

Like, Marrakech, the essay Such, Such Were the Joys and Shooting an Elephant had similar themes. All three essays show Blair’s greater meaning. Each piece shows a moral about more than the life of a small child, the life of a dislike police officer or the life of an on looker at a horrid event. They have clear relationships to the world as a whole on a greater scale. The morals all show people that they can make mistakes, that they can have the hardest of times. However, each moral shows the reader hope. Each essay clearly exhibits the ideas that life can get better. That there is more in the long run.
However, the these realizations wouldn’t come out so strong if Blair had come out and say this directly to the reader. Instead, his morals are shown and nurtured by Blair’s authority and honest voice depicted in his work. Coupled with his careful development shown in his clarity and design of writing, Blair ultimately gives the reader enough detail to feel full and satisfied without feeling over stuffed with useless details.
Blair’s careful handling of the reader by using such honesty in all his personal essays, makes a safe place for the reader to reflect. Blair uses his own experiences to give the reader a “ best friend” to help him or her figure out the hardships they might face. Blair’s written work “welcomes” the reader into his life holding nothing back. Blair’s honesty, holding back no details, connects the reader to him on a level that many writers lack when writing personal essays. By using such an honest voice, Blair captivates his audience, holding them physically and emotionally enthralled. These components make Blair’s work meaningful and inspiring. Blair’s work should be held among other works considered the best, his work clearly with standing the test of age.

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Work Cited

Orwell, George. "Marrakech." George Orwell: A Collection Of Essays. New York: Harevest Book, 1981. 180-87. Print.
Orwell, George. "Shooting an Elephant." George Orwell: A Collection Of Essays. New York: Harevest Book, 1981. 148-56. Print.
Orwell, George. "Such, Such were the Joys: Part I." George Orwell: A Collection Of Essays. New York: Harevest Book, 1981. 1-17. Print.
"Orwell, George." World Book Encyclopedia. 2009 ed. Print.