Anarchism In The Late Works Of George Orwell

George Orwell, as one of the most important twentieth century writers, developed his writing career with serious political concerns. His two masterpieces, Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty Four, established themselves as milestone works of anti-authoritarianism. Before the Spanish Civil War, Orwell was favorably impressed by communism and Soviet Union. The Spanish experiences, however, served as the decisive driving force in Orwell’s political transformation from a moderate supporter to a fierce detractor of Soviet regime. Upon his return from Spain, he began to attack the Stalinist and Fascist states as essentially similar totalitarian ones. At the beginning of the war, Orwell was enlisted in the militia organized by the Spanish left-wing party-Workers’Party of Marxist Unification (POUM), where he obtained more knowledge about Spanish anarchism and accepted some of their political proposals. During the war, the POUM and the anarchists were suppressed by the Spanish Republic and the Spanish Communist Party. This event marks the beginning of Orwell’s anti-Stalinism. In Homage to Catalonia, Orwell offers his witness and account of the civil war conflict to defend the POUM and the anarchists, while harshly criticizing the wartime policies of the Spanish Communist Party without discrimination. In Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty Four, he exposes the incoming threats of the authoritarian regime built upon the popular revolution. Thus, Orwell’s later writings are infused with anarchist proposals for individual freedom and equality, violent revolution, objection to power worship and opposition to elite domination.Based on Orwell’s personal experiences in Spain, the dissertation attempts to explore how the Spanish anarchism influenced Orwell’s political ideas, to analyze his intentional mis-representation of the so-called "civil war within the civil war" in Homage to Catalonia and to shed light upon the anarchist ideas hidden in the political fables Animal Farm and Nineteen-Eighty Four.Chapter One examines the social, economic and political background of Great Britain in the 1930s, to explain the political radicalization of George Orwell and his contemporary intellectuals. Under the atmosphere of the time, he answered the call from the Communist International and volunteered to fight for the democratic Spain Republic against the insurgents led by General Franco.Chapter Two traces the origin and evolution of European anarchism with emphasis on the influence of Bakunin’s theory upon the Spanish popular movement. Through a detailed account of Orwell’s connection with the POUM and Spanish anarchists, this chapter analyzes several changes in Orwell’s political thoughts. It’s Orwell’s Spanish experiences that brought him a better understanding of Spanish anarchism and crystallized his political beliefs.Chapter Three makes a comparison between two versions of the Spanish civil war, one from the pen of Orwell in Homage to Catalonia and another is recorded in the most authoritative histories of the Spanish Civil War. The comparison indicates Orwell’s strong sympathies for the anarchists and the POUMists, which motivated him to distort some of the important facts of the war in Homage to Catalonia.With reference to Orwell’s endorsement for anarchists and POUM in Homage to Catalonia, Chapter Four offers a re-reading of Animal Farm to explore how the author insinuates the Spanish Civil War in this political fable. This chapter draws parallels between the animal images and their actions in the fable and the political personalities and major events in Orwell’s version of the Spanish Civil War. Through analysis, it’s easy to find the author’s anarchist proposals for violent revolution, opposition to the privileged class and objection to the new elites brought about by the social revolution.Chapter Five examines the Bakuninian anarchism implicit in Nineteen-Eighty Four from three aspects:the dehumanization resulting from the coercion of the Oceania, which is in total opposition to freedom, equality and goodness promoted by anarchism; Winston’s relentless resistance to the social control imposed from the above, implies the author’s pursuit of absolute individual freedom; the endless desire of the ruling class represented by O’Brien for the social power, refracts the author’s vigilance of and misgivings about the revolutionary regime. From the concrete analysis, we can conclude that Orwell’s ideal society is often imbued with anarchist characteristics.It is important to note that anarchist political proposals hidden in Orwell’s thoughts were unconsciously engrained in his late writings. His critique of authoritarianism neither came from liberalism nor benefited from democratic socialism, but was inspired by Bakuninian anarchism, which has always been overlooked by previous critics.