Finding George Orwell In Burma

In the 1920s, George Orwell spent five years in Burma working as a policeman for the British colonial government--an experience he found profoundly distasteful, and that fueled his loathing for totalitarianism in any form, even the relatively benign colonialism of his own country. Emma Larkin (a pseudonym) sees Orwell's Burmese experience as vital to his development as a writer. He wrote about the place in one of his most powerful and often-reprinted essays, How to Shoot an Elephant, and he later set a novel there (BURMESE DAYS). But Larkin feels that Orwell's isolation in Burma, along with his surveillance work, also sowed the seeds for both 1984 and ANIMAL FARM. As she traveled the country (now Myanmar) in his footsteps, Larkin found its firmly entrenched police state atmosphere to be as chilling as anything Orwell depicted in his novels. Copyright (C) Muze Inc. 2005. For personal use only. All rights reserved.