Abstract

   George Orwell is an influential writer, and his works has become a cultural phenomenon. Orwell is a figure full of contradictions: born into a middle-class family, had been a colonial officer, and also been an anti-imperialist; he attended the Spanish Civil War with enthusiasm, and was a firm believer in communism and spared no effort to criticize totalitarianism. This paper analyzes Orwell’s political attitude and ambivalence in his two works, Shooting an Elephant and Animal Farm, to prove the purpose of his writing in his Why I Write. It tries to analyze how Orwell grew into a socialist full of contradictions and a great humanitarian writer against totalitarianism on the basis of his unique experiences.

Keywords: George Orwell, political attitude, anti-totalitarianism

摘要

乔治•奥威尔是一位极具影响力的作家，他的作品已成为一种文化现象。奥威尔本人是一个极其矛盾的人物：生于中产阶级家庭，做过殖民官员，又明确反对帝国主义的殖民政策；怀着热情与理想参加了西班牙内战，信仰社会主义，不遗余力地批评一切极权主义。论文奥威尔的自传性散文《射象》和政治讽喻小说《动物农场》为研究文本，分析两部作品中作者的政治态度与矛盾心理，印证奥威尔《我为何要写作》中的写作目的，并结合其独特的个人经历探究其如何蜕变为一个充满矛盾的社会主义者和一位伟大的反极权作家。

关键词：乔治•奥威尔；政治态度；反极权主义

1.    Introduction
Early on the morning of 21 January 1950, three months after Eric Author Blair’s (better known by his pseudonym George Orwell) second marriage, an artery burst in his lungs, killing him at the age of 46.
Despite his tragic early death, Orwell’s posthumous reputation was forged and sustained. George Orwell was a down-and-out writer who enjoyed little popularity before his last novel Nineteen Eighty-Four published in 1948. This novel made a splash when it first entered the literary arena. Orwell’s two masterpieces, Animal Farm (1945) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1948) catapulted him to international fame.
Short as his lifetime is, George Orwell is one of the most important writers in Britain in the first half of the 20th century, and “perhaps the 20th century’s best chronicler of English culture.”1 His reputation rests not only on his marvelously unique style but also on his political shrewdness and far-sightedness. His name has occupied an important position in English literary history, and a new adjective “Orwellian” has been derived from his name. The word is repeatedly used by international journalists as a description of totalitarian terror. This phenomenon, if it is not unique, can be rare for other writers.
As time goes by, Orwell’s reputation and influence have not fade away. He has been so widely known that after his death, and his influence over politics and literature can still be seen.